Mission: Protect Sasuke Uchiha
by Sutoriitoenzeru-Street Angel
Summary: It took years to make him, now he's smart, cold and strong. He is Kitsune, ROOTs leading protege and he's got one mission, protect Sasuke Uchiha and find Orochimaru. But he's going to discover his past, something he never wanted to do. SasuNaruSai
1. Preliminary Mission

Mizuki laughed to himself, he really would have to thank that brat the Hokage's Grandson. The boy had charged right into a meeting between the Hokage and the ANBU to try and defeat the old fool. This had given Mizuki the perfect opportunity to slip into the Hokage tower and claim a certain scroll. The Scroll of Sealing was strapped to his back and Mizuki was currently jumping from tree to tree to get to a secure location.

His plan was simple, he would make two copies of the scroll, a perfect one for himself and a false edited one that he would sell to the highest bidder. He would then return the original scroll to the Hokage for the reward money and blame it's disappearance on one of the brats from the Academy. Maybe that loud mouthed Inuzuka kid.

He wondered if Iruka would suspect him, that man was a weak fool always talking about morals and feelings. What good were those to a true ninja? A real ninja needed smarts, instincts and the intelligence to look out for himself before anyone else. No matter how high the price. Even if that meant your team-mate's lives. Mizuki allowed himself to daydream, images of Iruka bloodied and bruised flittered in his mind.

His lip curled up as he lost himself to his imagination. So engrossed was her that he did not notice the obstacle looming in front of him. Mizuki gave a shout as he found himself jumping right into a sticky, inky-black net. Trapped like a fly on a spider's web he struggled to break free but inky tendrils curled up around his wrists, ankles and neck holding him down.

A weight left his back as the scroll was cut loose and he twisted his head to see who was responsible. Standing behind him were two boys, one with bright blonde hair and the other had black hair, they couldn't be older than the latest batch of genins that he had passed only yesterday.

"Who are you?" he snarled poring chakra into his limbs to strengthen them but the net onto seemed to tighten it's grip. Then he saw something, the net was extending out of a scroll, a scroll that the black haired boy was drawing on very rapidly with a paintbrush.

"That is none of your concern," the blonde said, his tone was polite and didn't give any indication that he was mad at Mizuki for stealing the scroll or disgusted or happy that he'd caught Mizuki or anything.

"Look kids, I'll strike a deal with you if you'll just give me back my scroll," Mizuki drawled pulling a grin onto his face.

"We may look like children but we're not ignorant," the black haired one said.

"Your scroll you say?" the blonde smirked, "then you won't mind us taking a look?"

"Kitsune-san," the black haired one snapped, "it's not his, you shouldn't open it, it is forbidden!" The blonde ignored him as he broke the seal and unrolled the scroll scanning its contents. Uncomfortable but interested none-the-less the black haired one leaned over the blonde's shoulder to read as well.

Mizuki watched as the blonde began to form hand seals, "What the hell are you doing kid? Those are jounin level techniques and higher you won't be able to do any of them," Mizuki sneered, "now just give me the scroll and I'll let you both off easy."

"Let us off of what?" the black haired one asked. Mizuki growled, was this kid trying to annoy him.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Ten clones of the blonde appeared around the clearing and they all looked around at each other. Mizuki looked at him in amazement, there were ninja's twice his age to produce that many illusionary clones but to have produced that many _shadow clones_ on what appeared to be his first try at the technique was impressive. More than that it was frightening. Either the boy was a genius protégée or he had phenomenal chakra reserves, neither of which Mizuki felt like fighting.

"Kitsune-san we have to complete the mission," the black haired one protested.

"I'll perfect the technique later, let's go," the blonde replied. He wrapped up the scroll and then tied it to Mizuki's back. Mizuki couldn't protest as his mouth was suddenly filled with ink and the bindings had wrapped up his whole body up to his nose including the scroll on his back. He then felt himself transported to what appeared to be the top of the Hokage tower.

He screamed at them through the ink and coughed at the acrid taste. "Stop complaining, we could have simply killed you, at least this way you may keep your life," the blonde sneered, "let's go Sai."

"Hai Kitsune-san," at this the two vanished leaving Mizuki bound and awaiting discovery.

---Underground---

"You took longer than expected, perhaps you aren't ready for the mission I had planned for you both," Danzo said sternly looking down at the boys who had reported to him.

The blonde had been trouble from the start. His original name was Naruto Uzumaki and he had been causing the third Hokage a lot of grief before Danzo had got his hands on him. As a baby Naruto had needed to be looked after but what woman would take in the boy that caged the fox demon Kyuubi? The third had been forced to take care of the child until he was old enough to know how to feed himself.

The boy had then been set up with an apartment paid for by the Hokage with a weekly allowance for money. Unfortunately the wishes of the late fourth Hokage that the boy be seen as a hero went un-noticed as Naruto frequently found himself the subject of beatings by random villagers. Not wanting to risk the breaking of the seal the third had assigned an ANBU unit to guard the boy should he ever be set upon thinking that this would make the attacks stop.

It didn't however and the ANBU ended up being called out at least three times a day, every day. Naruto found himself unable to leave his apartment and this was no way for a child to grow up. Danzo had then stepped in and offered to take the boy in personally and see to his education and training in the art of being a ninja. Reluctant but with little other choice the third had agreed and that is how Naruto Uzumaki became a member of ROOT.

Most of the members of ROOT were substantially older than Naruto except for two, Sai and an older boy that Sai had come to refer to as his brother. Sai was an exceptional student, he took to concepts easily and he was being trained to have no emotion. That was going perfectly until he began to interact with Naruto. Headstrong and loud Naruto had one goal in mind, to become Hokage so that everyone in the village would stop disrespecting him and start treating him like he was somebody.

This had made Sai question himself and seek advice from his slightly more emotional _brother_. Danzo had then taken Naruto away from Sai and when Naruto was returned to Sai he was no longer Naruto. With no emotions, no memories and no personality the blonde, blue-eyed boy was now Kitsune. Since then Sai hadn't let Naruto, or Kitsune as he was now, out of his sight but Danzo didn't care, just so long as they both did exactly as he told them to and never asked questions.

"I am sorry, Danzo-sama," Sai and Naruto chorused. Danzo looked down at the two boys, neither of whom looked genuinely sorry but that was their training, after all a ninja never shows his emotions.

"Why were you late? Mizuki is barely chunin material he shouldn't have been a problem."

"I was practising a new technique Danzo-sama," Naruto replied. Danzo raised an eyebrow, his eyes flitted to look at Sai for a moment. Sai wasn't looking at him or Naruto preferring to stare at a point behind Danzo.

"New technique?" Danzo enquired, where could the boy have gotten a new technique from, Mizuki wouldn't be able to teach them anything they didn't know but then how…

"From the Scroll of Sealing Danzo-sama," Naruto explained, "I am still perfecting it." Danzo was impressed but didn't show it, he knew well that the contents of that scroll was not to be learned and had told both boys as much but it seemed Naruto was still unpredictable.

"I see and what did you learn Sai?" Danzo asked turning to the boy who had stood silently by the original Naruto throughout the demonstration.

"Nothing Danzo-sama," Sai replied quietly his eyes downcast, he had been torn between the mission and intrigue, he thought he had done the right thing by not learning from the scroll but perhaps he hadn't.

"Then it is perhaps just you that is not ready," Danzo said sternly, Sai felt something stirring in his stomach that he didn't understand, he would have asked his brother what it meant but he was no longer around and Kitsune had no emotions to explain.

"I am sorry Danzo-sama," Sai said quietly without meeting the older man's eyes, instead he looked at Kitsune who ignored him. Danzo, noticing that we would not get anything from Sai, instructed both to leave and they obeyed vanishing in an instant. Sai wasn't ready yet but Danzo had a couple of months to prepare him so he wasn't worried. Kitsune was more than ready to lead, Kitsune had taken to the training in a way that Naruto never would have but suppressing the boy's personality had had effects Danzo had never anticipated. Only he, Sai and a handful of other ROOT members knew what had happened and none of them were allowed to speak of it.

_-----_

_Tada...amazing isn't it? Lol, only joking. Can anyone guess what happens two months after the scroll of sealing was stolen? That's right, it's the chunin exams where Sasuke first meets Naruto:D_


	2. Stage 1

_Well here's the next chapter, sorry it took so long but I've had exams and I really want to make this story a good one so if the updates are sporadic forgive me. On the other hand I break up in two weeks so I'll be able to update much easier and I'M GOING TO OTAKON!!!!!! How amazing is that? Little old me, all the way from England going to America FOR A WHOLE WEEK, and to an ANIME CONVENTION!!!! Plus Harry Potter is being released while I'm out there, my two most favourite things in the world right now all in one week. And the fifth movie is coming out just before I leave so YAY!!! Anyway, less about me...more story!!!_

_-----_

₪ ¤ º **_2 months later_** º ¤ ₪

Danzo turned to face the two boys in front of him, "The object of the mission is to keep Sasuke Uchiha away from Orochimaru, his life is priority. Since we do not know what form Orochimaru will take it us up to you to find out where he is. You are only to engage him in combat as a last resort."

"Hai Danzo-sama," Kitsune and Sai chorused together, they didn't even look at the two girls either side of Danzo.

"This is Lira and her bloodline ability will help you to keep track of Sasuke Uchiha and this is Maya who will act as your Jounin sensei," Danzo explained indicating first the short girl with red hair, green eyes and freckles and then the taller brunette.

Maya looked at the two boys, she remembered them both and in a way she wished she didn't.

_Danzo strode down the hallway a bubbly blonde eight-year-old boy trailing after him looking at everything in shear amazement. Danzo rapped his knuckles on a door that opened to reveal Maya. Her brown hair was down and she was wearing a blue yukata, she blinked as she looked down at Naruto. "Um…Danzo-sama?" _

_"Clean him up and find him a room," was all the response she got as the rather imposing man turned and strode away. _

_Once again Maya looked down at the blonde who was now watching her warily as though he expected her hit him or something. Maya crouched down to his eye level and looked at him, "And you are?" _

_Looking slightly relieved the boy's face burst out into a big grin as he jabbed a thumb into his own chest, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage." _

_Maya was shocked to say the least, there were plenty of children in root at the moment, separated from their parents for various reasons but none of them grinned like this kid. Most of them looked miserable or had no expression at all. Maya poked the boy in the forehead and the look of indignation nearly made her laugh, "Is that so?" _

_"Yeh it's so," Naruto replied frowning at her, the shear breadth of emotion this child seemed to show was new to her, "I'm gunna be Hokage so everyone will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody." As Naruto continued with his little speech his expression changed again to determination. _

_"Well I've never known a Hokage to be so filthy," she smirked. She knew that she was indulging Naruto and that Danzo-sama wouldn't approve but seeing all the emotions that pulled the boy's face one way or another and the light in his blue eyes was somewhat amusing. Naruto pulled at his trousers, they were rather dirty. "Come on, you need a bath." _

_Naruto followed her eagerly looking around at her sparsely decorated apartment and enjoying the fact that at least someone besides Sarutobi was treating him like he was human. _

_After a good hour of scrubbing Naruto looked much better. Maya had then taken him to another apartment that was shared by two boys, one of whom was close to Naruto's age…a boy with the no-name…a boy who he would come to refer to as Sai. And somehow along the way, despite having only spent a couple of hours at best with Naruto she found herself feeling a little attached to the lively blonde. _

Looking at him now, standing straight with his shoulders back and his jaw set, he wasn't the least bit like she remembered him. She had heard of an incident, three years ago now, that had involved Naruto and after that the boys name never came up. But Danzo had told her that this boys name was Kitsune so despite the striking resemblance she could only assume that it wasn't Naruto. But that couldn't be right, she remembered something about the Naruto she'd met, six whisker marks, three on each cheek. This boy had what might be a scar running all the way across his face and over his nose, with two smaller scars on each cheek below it. Then she realised that the long scar was the top two of Naruto's _whiskers_ joined together.

"I'll leave them with you now Maya," Danzo said, nodding slightly in her direction before turning to go, "make sure not to arouse too much suspicion, I don't think that Sarutobi would approve if he realised what we are doing."

"Hai Danzo-sama," Maya replied with a respectful nod. Danzo then left leaving the newly formed team to themselves, Maya turned back around to face the two boys, "Alright you three, we're moving out."

₪ ¤ º **_The streets of Konoha _**º ¤ ₪

Kitsune shoved his hands into the pockets of the baggy white shorts he was wearing. The black shirt that he wore absorbed the heat from the blazing sun but it didn't bother him. Sai and Lira followed behind him, the three had been left to their own devices with forms to fill out so they could enter the chunin exams. Maya had gone to recommend them for the exams leaving them with strict orders not to draw attention to themselves.

They heard a commotion up ahead and turned into a street to see the grandson of the third Hokage being held up by his scarf, making choking sounds and whimpers of protest. The one holding him was dressed head to toe in black, his face was painted with purple markings and he wore the sand village's symbol on his headgear.

A blonde girl with her hair tied back into four ponytails looked anxious at the actions of her team-mate while a pink haired girl and a boy in a grey hoodie looked both angered and nervous. Lira snorted, "Let's go," she sneered, "this looks like too much trouble to be involved in."

Kitsune didn't answer, he was looking at another boy who was sat in a tree at the side of the street. Blue-black hair and glaring black eyes, he was Uchiha Sasuke. The dark haired boy was tossing a small rock in the air and catching it, his eyes focused on the sand ninja that was currently causing all the fuss. Apparently no-one in the street seemed to have noticed the Uchiha's arrival, or that Sasuke had pulled back his arm and was aiming at the sand ninja. Kitsune reached down and flipped his pouch open, drawing a kunai.

₪₪₪₪₪

Kankuro smirked lazily at the squirmy boy in his grip, "First I'll deal with this shorty then I'll deal with that one," he eyed the boy in the grey hoodie maliciously.

"Put him down," the pink haired girl protested stepping forward but making no other move to stop him.

Kankuro gave a startled cry as he dropped Konohamaru, his hand flying to his now bleeding wrist. Sakura and Temari both gasped when they saw the kunai embedded in Kankuro's wrist. Up in the tree, Sasuke Uchiha's eyes widened as he released his grip on the rock he had been about to throw. Konohamaru immediately scrambled away to rejoin his teammates safely behind Sakura and Kiba.

"What the hell?" Kankuro yelled spinning around and pulling the dripping kunai from his wrist.

"Kankuro are you alright?" Temari burst out moving over to her brother and pulling out some bandages, hastily wrapped the still bleeding wound.

"Who are you?" Kankuro demanded fixing his gaze on a blonde boy at the other end of the street.

The red haired girl standing to the left of the blonde strode forward in front of the blonde and began to chastise him, "What are you playing at Kitsune, Maya-sensei told us not to draw attention to ourselves were you not listening?"

"Threatening the Hokage's grandson in such a manner is an insult to Konoha and as a leaf shinobi I cannot accept such as insult. I thought representatives of the sand, with whom we have an alliance, would show more manners but I am proven wrong," Kitsune explained. His eyes never left Kankuro's and his expression never changed, the red haired girl was obviously angered but said no more, retreating back to _Kitsune's_ side.

"I'm gunna hurt you so bad you little punk," Kankuro growled as he snatched his wrist back from Temari and threw his wrapped up puppet to the ground beginning the unwind the bandaging.

"You're going to use Karasu?" Temari gasped her hands still poised as though reaching for her brother.

"No you won't," Kitsune replied evenly, not the least bit affected by the open threat. In the background Konohamaru murmured _He's so cool_.

"Oh and why's that?" Kankuro smirked, "You gunna run home to mommy? Not brave enough to face my front eh?"

"You're other teammate has arrived and he doesn't seem pleased," Kitsune stated simply.

Both Kankuro's eyes and Temari's eyes widened but after looking left, right and behind them and seeing no others Kankuro's smirk returned and he pulled harder on the mummified puppet. "Kankuro stop." Kankuro froze instantly and his gaze snapped upwards to see a red haired sand shinobi with a gourd on his back doing a good impersonation of a bat.

"G-gaara," Temari gasped.

Sasuke stiffened against the tree trunk, how had this Gaara snuck up so quietly. "Kankuro, you are a disgrace to our village," Gaara then turned to Kitsune, "I'm sorry if he has caused you any trouble." _This guy stopped Kankuro so easily, who is he?_

Sasuke watched as Gaara melted into sand and appeared between his two siblings, _To be less than a metre away and from me to not even notice, how is that possible? Just how fast is this guy?_

"Wait a second," Sakura called out causing the three sand shinobi to look at her, "Why are you here if you're from sand, foreign shinobi have to have a reason for being in other villages so state your purpose."

"You really don't know much do you," Temari scoffed fishing out her passport, "we have permission to be here," she sneered. She held up the small piece of paper with her picture on that had been stamped, "We're here for the chunin exams."

"What are the chunin exams?" Kiba asked looking around.

"It's a test every genin ninja has to take to become a chunin," Konohamaru explained.

Kiba smirked, "This should be a piece of cake, I'll easily become a chunin." He scowled when Temari and Kankuro snorted in laughter. They paused mid-laugh though as they turned back to face Gaara. Gaara's eyes had taken on a malicious and deadly glint as his gaze focused on Kitsune whose expression hadn't changed once throughout the entire encounter.

"We're leaving," Kitsune said and with that the three of them vanished.

Gaara's scowl depend and Temari thought it best to get her youngest brother out of here before his need to kill got them into trouble. "Hey!" It was Sasuke this time who now felt it a good time to make his decent from the tree, "who are you?"

"Me?" Temari asked giving a fake bubbly grin _He looked like that black haired kid who was next to the blonde brat_ _a second ago…local hottie._

"No, the one in the middle," Sasuke said.

"I have no interest in you," with that Gaara and his siblings walked away leaving a rather affronted Sasuke.

₪ ¤ º **_The Hokage Tower _**º ¤ ₪

"Now I'm sure you all realise why you are here," Sarutobi began, lacing his fingers and leaning forward on the table. "The chunin exams will be held one week from today on the 1st of July I'd like to know if any of you have any recommendations. First would the jounin responsible for this year's genin graduates step forward."

Asuma, Kurenai and Kakashi all stepped forward.

"Now as you know these exams can be very trying, people have been known to be severely injured, mentally scarred or even killed during the undertaking. With that in mind would any of your three like to recommend anyone on your teams?"

There was silence for a while as each of the jounin let the words sink in and those around them were confident that none of them would make recommendations. The genin they were in charge of only graduated two months ago after all. Finally Kakashi stepped forward, "I Kakashi Hatake would like to recommend Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Kiba Inuzuka." Kakashi gave a respectful nod to the Hokage and stepped back.

Behind him Iruka's eyes widened, Kakashi couldn't be serious. They hadn't had enough time. Most genin waited a year before entering the chunin exams for the first time, they'd only had two months of training they weren't ready for this.

Kurenai stepped forward, "I Kurenai Yuuhi would like to recommend Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame and Kyo Aruba."

Asuma stepped forward, "I Asuma Sarutobi would like to recommend Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka."

"I see," the Hokage murmured as he wrote the names down.

"You can't all be serious!" The three jounins, the Hokage and most of the room turned to face Iruka, "Lord Hokage you can't let them enter the chunin exams. They aren't ready, they've only had two months. They were my students, I know them, they're talented yes but they aren't ready for the chunin exams."

"They aren't your students anymore Iruka," Kakashi said matter-of-factly. His cold and impassive tone made Iruka pause in his passionate tirade to look at him in a pleading manner. "They're mine." It was cold, crisp and finite, Iruka opened his mouth to protest, even looked to Kurenai and Asuma for help but they too looked impassive.

"Kakashi is right Iruka," Asuma said, "they have grown in the last two months and if they aren't ready then that is something they will have to learn for themselves. You can't hold on to them Iruka."

"But-"

"I know you want to protect them Iruka but you don't know them as they are now," Kurenai finished calmly.

"Touching though this little argument is…"

Iruka paused and turned to see the brunette women striding up from the back of the room and raising her hand. "Who?"

"…I, Maya, would like to recommend Kitsune, Sai and Lira."

"I see," Sarutobi said lacing his fingers together and rest his chin against his thumbs, "I accept all of these recommendations, now, is there anyone else?"

"Hokage-sama, you can't be serious," Iruka protested.

"Please Iruka-san, calm down," the third replied calmly, "you cannot protect them forever, they must be free to learn on their own and besides, you've taught them well." Sarutobi smiled at Iruka who relented but by no means relaxed, he was flattered by the complement but was by no means at ease. It did little to reassure him that that woman had recommended three names he'd never come across before in all his years of teaching at the academy…and he had been there a while.

_-----_

_Well that's them all signed up for the chunin exams. I have to go and revise now...I have my last exam on Wednesday so wish me luck :D_

_-----_

_Review Responses:-_

xXUrbanRegalityXx - I'm glad you like it, enjoy the update?

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akume - I have written, have you enjoyed?

ddd - Um...right

madhatter hi-chan - Lol you will have to wait to find that out. The Naruto-Kitsune transformation probably won't be revealed until the Forest of Death bit but who knows. The opportunity may arise sooner.

Inu-Angel Z - So do others...but it is my secret for now...Muahahahaha :D

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luv it - Point taken

kurokioku - Neither have I so I thought I'd give it a shot. :D


	3. Stage 2

"Simple instruction really, just one, don't arouse too much suspicion, those were Danzo-sama's exact words and what did he do? He threw a kunai into the wrist of some sand ninja!" Lira was obviously incensed. Being the kind of girl who followed orders to the T it annoyed her when people like Kitsune came along whom just because they had talent felt they could break the rules and then get away with it, again because they had talent.

Kitsune chose that moment to become very interested in the colour of the opposite wall.

Maya crossed her legs and leaned back, her idea of a thinking pose. She looked at Lira for a while; the red haired girl hands were curled into fists and shaking. Maya sighed and then turned her head to look at Kitsune whose face had remained impassive throughout Lira's outburst, he hadn't even looked at her. Sai stood the other side of Kitsune to Lira and although he had glanced at Kitsune once had shown no other response.

"I see," Maya said quietly, "Kitsune is this true?"

"Yes," he replied looking at her, those bright blue eyes were cold and piercing, everything they were made to be and everything they shouldn't be. But Maya wasn't one to question Danzo-sama's ways.

"Reasons?" Maya asked her face also settling into an impassive expression. Lira however was openly glaring at Kitsune, her cheeks flushed slightly from her anger.

"Yes."

"Then explain them." Kitsune's last answer had irked Maya but it wouldn't do to let it show. It wasn't that Kitsune intimidated Maya, it was that Kitsune had more swing with Danzo-sama who _did_ intimidate Maya.

"Uchiha-san was about to throw a rock at the same sand ninja as I. Allowing him to do so would have drawn attention to his abilities. There were also three sound ninja watching from higher up in the tree Uchiha-san was sat it. Such a display would not have been beneficial to us because we do not know whom Orochimaru has allied himself with," Kitsune explained.

"So you're assuming that Orochimaru is somehow linked to the Hidden Sound village?" Lira demanded.

"Yes," Kitsune answered simply.

"Do you know how stupid that is?"

"The Hidden Sound village has only been established a couple of months, just long enough for it to be able to register candidates for the chunin exams and as you well know every entering genin team must come accompanied by their jounin sensei. The perfect disguise for anyone wanting to sneak into the village unquestioned," Kitsune's eyes narrowed slightly at Lira and had he known how he would have sneered.

"Also, we don't know who Orochimaru may align himself with, for all we know, he's made secret treaties with all the other ninja villages," Sai added barely sparing a glance at Lira.

"Oh and should we plan on keeping the whole of Konoha away from Uchiha-san, holding his hand as he crosses the street?" Lira said sarcastically.

"We can't let our guard down," was Kitsune's only reply.

Lira glared at him, "Fine, while well you boy's fetch the bubblewrap so we can protect Uchiha-san from scraping his knees I'll be doing something useful, like _training_!" With that she spun on her heal and strode out of the room.

"You could have been more tactful about that Kitsune," Maya said as she stood and walked over to the blonde and Sai.

"What for? She needs to learn to control her jealousy."

"Now that's not fair-"

"Maya-san," Sai began, "Kitsune makes a very valid point and Lira should let her pride go. Right now she is not efficient as a shinobi, as a shinobi must lay aside all emotions for the sake of the mission."

"If that is all Maya-san Sai and I need to go and investigate into these visiting shinobi." With that both Kitsune and Sai turned and headed out of the door before their _sensei_ could say a word to the contrary.

Maya raked a hand through her dark hair, "Why do I suddenly feel like I'm the child here?"

₪ ¤ º _**The Ninja Academy – Chunin Exam Waiting Room **_º ¤ ₪

Kitsune, Sai and Lira were lent up against the wall having been briefed that the first test would be a simple written exam. The three of them were dressed in navies, blacks and dark greens. Wearing colour would have attracted too much attention. The same attention team 7 got as they walked through the double doors.

The three stood in shock before a crowd of less than amused faces. Sai and Lira were checking the crowd for anyone suspicious or anyone eyeing up Sasuke in a less than competitive way but given the nature of the chunin exams looks weren't enough to go on. Kitsune kept his eyes trained on team 7 and those in close proximity. The girl, Sakura, gulped and looked like she was about to feint but was distracted by a high screech of "Sasuke!"

If anyone in the room hadn't been watching the rainbow that was team 7 then they would be now as a blonde haired girl (Ino, team 8, Kitsune thought) ran up and glomped an annoyed looking Sasuke from behind. At this Sakura decided to engage herself in a catfight with the blonde. The rest of team 8, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi, also wondered over followed closely by team 10, Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame and Kyo Aruba. The bigger the group got the louder Kiba seemed to get; everyone in the room was now watching the young genins with annoyance.

It wasn't until a silver haired genin, dressed in purple moved over that Kitsune tensed, anyone could be an ally of Orochimaru and what better indicator than how close they got to Sasuke. He introduced himself as Kabuto Yakushi and it was he who pointed out to the group of nine just how much attention they'd attracted. All three girls in the group seemed to be shaking; they weren't ready for this.

Kitsune's eyes narrowed and his ears seemed to twitch as if he was straining them to hear whatever Kabuto said, "No it's…my seventh. Well they're held twice a year so this'll be my fourth year."

Odd…usually you'd of passed due to experience by that stage or at least not tried 7 times in a row. Normally, upon failing the exam first time round an inexperienced genin would take a year or maybe even two out to train before returning to the chunin exams. He'd have to see what he could find out about this Kabuto because something about his manner didn't seem right. No one gives out information that easily and he didn't seem to be in a sharing mood with any of the other genin there.

"Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates, individually?" Sasuke asked.

"They might, you have someone special in mind?" Kabuto gave a little smirk, the kind you give when you know you have something someone else wants.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "I might," he snapped.

"Well I can't promise my information is complete or perfect," Kabuto said apologetically as he stacked his cards carefully, "but I've got something on just about everyone."

Kitsune's eyes narrowed further, Sai was listening too at this point.

"Including you guys of course." Kabuto's smirk widened just a little.

"Watch him," Kitsune hissed; Sai and Lira nodded.

Meanwhile the interaction between Kabuto and the rookie nine had continued, "He's Gaara of Desert," Sasuke said, "and there's Kitsune while you're at it."

"Man that's no fun you even know their names, that makes it easy," Kabuto whined and he shifted through his cards, selecting two. Kitsune ducked into the shadows and moved close enough to see the faces of the cards as Kabuto poured his chakra into them.

"Right first up, Gaara of the Desert. Mission experience, eight C ranks and…get this one B rank as a genin, there's not a lot more information on this guy, he was a rookie from another land originally but there is this. He survived every mission without getting a scratch on him." The reactions by the rookie nine were predictable, verbal exclamations of surprise, awe and in Sasuke's case, eager. Kabuto also seemed to react unfavourably to this news but he put the information in the cards, why would this surprise him?

"Now for Kitsune," the second card twirled and Kitsune leaned a little further in out of sheer curiosity. "That's funny," Kabuto, said in astonishment, "no recorded mission experience but that can't be. A genin has to have done at least 10 D rank missions or higher in order to qualify for the chunin exams."

"Maybe he didn't enter," Sakura, suggested still looking a bit nervous at all the stares they were getting.

"Maybe," Sasuke said quietly, his eyes fixed on the card that told him nothing useful at all. Kitsune smirked, just how it should be. Sliding back through the shadows he returned to Sai and Lira.

"…of course the hidden sound village sprang up recently, no one knows anything about it." Kabuto said, his tone emphasising the idea of mystery.

"Sneaky bastard, he's playing them like instruments," Lira snapped.

"Shut up," Kitsune barked at her in hushed tones.

"So it would seem, it's almost enough to make you loose your confidence," mumbled Hinata Hyuuga, this caused an immediate reaction in the volatile blonde, which made the shy Hyuuga cringe.

"Those three sound ninja have been watching Sasuke since he came in," Sai hissed in Kitsune's ear. The blonde glanced at the three out of the corner of his eye, one girl and two boys, one hunched and the other with a cocky smirk plastered onto his angular face.

"They were at the fight with the sand genin," Lira said quietly and Kitsune nodded.

"Then we'll watch them to and-

"AAARRGGG! My name is Kiba Inuzuka and I'm gunna beat every one of you!"

"Oh great why not just wearing a flashing light on his head saying kill me now," Lira rolled her eyes and sighed, honestly, this world would be so much better without men in it.

₪ ¤ º _**The Ninja Academy – Outside the Chunin Exam Waiting Room **_º ¤ ₪

Kakashi chuckled and pushed himself up from where he had been leaning against the door. His doubts about recommending his team for the chunin exams so early abated a little. They needed to learn and hopefully this would push them together more as team. The boy with the confidence and the drive to push himself past the obstacles, the talented but distracted girl and the boy with the purpose and the holier-than-thou attitude; they reminded him so much of his team when they were young.

₪ ¤ º _**The Ninja Academy – Chunin Exam Waiting Room **_º ¤ ₪

"The sound ninja are going to attack Kabuto," Sai hissed.

"He's watching them, he knows what they're going to do," Lira replied. She and Sai turned to look at Kitsune but he wasn't there.

"The sand ninja that attacked the Hokage's grandson is ready to attack also," Lira said to Sai. Sai's eyes narrowed.

The three sand ninja took off, weaving in and out of other ninja at high speeds. The spiky haired one jumped up into the air and drew three kunai from the pouch at his thigh. He smirked and threw them down in front of Kabuto. The silver haired man pushed himself back in a crouch, the skid causing some of the shrapnel on the floor to rise slightly in his wake. The three kunai embedded themselves where he had previously been standing.

Kabuto's eyes narrowed, he moved to push himself forwards and up but the other male of the sound ninja team had gotten too close. The turtle like ninja threw a punch at Kabuto. Flinging himself backwards Kabuto just avoided contact with the sound ninja's fist. The metal plated arm passed just by his nose.

The sound ninja didn't make to move again and Kabuto smirked. Then there was a crack and Kabuto's glasses splinted, crumbling from the frames and falling with a soft twinkle to the floor. Kabuto winced, "So it was that kind of attack," Kabuto said. What he meant by that was left open, Kitsune frowned and was about to step in when Kabuto lurched forward and with a groan began to heave all over the floor.

The rookie nine winced; Sakura ran over to him and asked if he was all right, looping her arms around his shoulders in a comforting way. Kitsune frowned again, Kabuto saw the attack from sound coming and that open response…it was almost like he wanted the rookie nine to be afraid of the sound ninja.

Releasing the chakra from his feet Kitsune did a flip in mid air to land on his knees between Kabuto, who by this time was dry heaving and the sound ninja.

"Kitsune," he heard Sakura exclaim from behind him.

"Sound," Kitsune said, his blue eyes narrowing as he gave a little nod towards the three shinobi that had gathered in what was meant to be an intimidating arch.

"Local cutie," the black haired one said with a smirk as she flicked her long hair carelessly.

"Back off," Lira sneered as she and Sai made their way over. She turned her gaze to the two men of the group, "Let's get something straight, here, you move for us." As she said that she walked towards them and pushed them out of the way by pressing her hands to their faces. The black haired girl glared after her as Sai and Kitsune followed through.

"Hey you!"

Kitsune, Sai and Lira turned to look at the one pointing an accusatory finger at the blonde leader. It was Kankuro and he didn't look happy. The sand ninja made to slip the wrapped up bundle on his back off one shoulder but the one named Gaara held a hand over his brother's chest. Kankuro's eyes narrowed but he did not continue his attack. Good thing to as at that moment the double doors on the other side of the room were flung open and a cloud of smoke temporarily hid the figures that had stepped forward from that doorway.

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_Well I know I haven't updated in ages but it's a matter of preference._

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_Review Responses:-_

Dark Toy - Well I updated and there isn't really going to be pinning...confusion mostly but that won't be for a while.

akume - Well there was some action but most of it is next chapter

ddd - It's gunna sorta be a triangle you'll see

Inu-Angel Z - Thinking up OC names are really hard for me unless I've got their character planned like Lira. So I figured I'd put Kiba on team 7 so I wouldn't have to worry and then team 8 got involved. Plus Kiba and Akamaru are fun to work with. Lira's bloodline is going to be a secret for a little while longer :D

yugiL - I now pronounce you fic and wife :D Glad you like Kitsune and there'll be Sasu/Naru interactions in a couple of chapters

xXUrbanRegalityXx - Kitsune the sex muffin, he seems to be getting a lot of attention :D Lira is sorta strong, not amazing or anything, her main attribute is her bloodline.

ILoveItachihessohot - For the best I hope


	4. Stage 3

**The dialogue may seem familiar as it is referenced directly from the American dub.**

"It's time to begin, I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor and from this moment, your worst enemy." And he certainly did look the part at nearly 7ft tall and dressed in a long black trench coat over a fully buttoned grey uniform he was a fearsome site to behold. Two long scars ran across his face and his dark eyes seemed to pierce everyone in the room.

"First you candidates from the village hidden in the sound knock it off, who told you could fight. You want to be failed before we've even begun?" Ibiki's face was cold and stern as he fixed his gaze on the team of three.

"Sorry," said the one who was bent over and whose choice of accessorise made him resemble a turtle. "It's our first time guess we were a little jumpy." After a pause and with obvious after thought he said, "Sir."

Ibiki looked over the crowd once again and continued, "I'll say this once so listen up!" His tone was commanding and by this point everyone in the room was quaking in their ninja boots. "There will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without permission from your proctor and even then the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited anyone who even thinks about messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it?"

"No fatal force…that's no fun," the second male member of the sound three said with a wicked smirk that made a chill run down Sakura's spine.

"Freak," Kiba muttered, the sound ninja sent him a glare.

"If you're done over there?" Ibiki called causing Kiba to flush slightly out of embarrassment, the sound ninja simply scoffed. "Now if we're ready we'll proceed to the first stage of the chunin exam. Hand over your paperwork and in return you'll each be give a number," Ibiki held up a small deck of square white cards, a black number one was printed on the top card. "The number determines where you will sit, we'll begin the written test once your all seated." Although his face remained impassive Ibiki's tone gave away a small sense of amusement at how some of the faces in the room fell.

The most noticeable change was that of one Kiba Inuzuka who went as far as to sink to his knees. Akamaru gave a desperate howl as if echoing the horror in his master's head. '_NOOOOOOOOO_' Kiba screamed inwardly. Having played truant more often than not back at the academy Kiba's grades hadn't been great. This had resulted in no end of teasing from his sister Hana whose school days had been somewhat more successful. Adept at learning his clan jutsus Kiba seemed to lack some of the basic ninja skills and nearly failed the graduation exam.

Sakura gave a little smile as a thought flitted through her head, '_tough luck for Kiba, written exams definitely aren't his strong point.' _It's true that she liked him in a sort of annoying little brother kind of way but this was going to be a tough time and the less competition the better. If she could drop as much baggage as possible now all the better. Sakura wasn't vindictive by nature, she was actually very caring but she was a competitive little soul if given the chance. After all her most influential friendship growing up had been Ino and that friendship was comprised of competing for nearly everything, nowadays it was mostly just Sasuke's attention.

She filed in behind Sasuke hoping to get a seat next to him, not because she thought of cheating off him but if he needed her answers…she'd be happy to oblige. Not that she condoned cheating…she was just helping out the lover of her life, what was wrong with that? To her dismay she found that the cards were shuffled and Sasuke was several rows behind her.

Frowning a little Sakura made her way to her seat mapping out where everyone else she knew was. Two rows in front there was Kiba, he was sat next to that Kitsune boy. He wasn't hard to spot though, his bright blonde hair shined like a light bulb amongst the browns and blacks, he'd be spotted a million miles away. Of course, she was one to talk, her hair was pink. The other side of Kitsune was a very shy looking Hinata who was blushing slightly and trying not to look at Kiba. Honestly that boy was dense, Hinata had been eyeing him up since their early academy days and she certainly wasn't interested. Sure Kiba was cute but her type was the dark and talented…so Sasuke was just perfect wasn't he?

"Everyone eyes front, there are a few rules you need to be aware of and I won't answer any questions so you better pay attention the first time around." This statement was accompanied by the slamming of a piece of chalk against the board. A few people winced at the scratching sounds of chalk on board, who needs dripping water when you can subject some to chalk on chalkboard screeching?

"You might want to pay attention Pinkie, after all, he said no questions."

Sakura snapped her gaze to the sighed and inner Sakura groaned, sitting next to her was the red haired girl on Kitsune's team. She was smirking and Sakura wanted to reply but was interrupted by Ibiki.

"Rule one, the test is marked on a point reduction system, so you begin with a perfect score of ten points. One point lost for every wrong answer." Some people looked worried, working backwards was sometimes more difficult than working forwards. Whereas some people gained momentum from the thought of gaining points from ground zero those same people got discouraged by the idea of ruining a perfect score.

"Rule number two, teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members."

Sakura, who had been sitting comfortably up till now suddenly paled.

"What's the matter?" Lira asked, "Someone on your team not up to par?"

Sakura glared at the smirking girl, "No, for your information my team is going to be just fine."

"Are you sure? That dog-boy's on your team isn't he? Not the brightest bulb of the lot I'd say, in fact I'd be willing to bet you just wanna walk out this exam right now because you already know you're going to fail," Lira taunted.

"Silence," Ibiki snapped making Lira sneer at him, "Shut up and listen. Rule number 3 the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot they will subtract two points from the culprits score."

Kiba looked down either side of the room seeing the six or so sentinels either side made his sides tingle. If his previous record of bad scores wasn't enough he now had to worry about being eagle eyed. Being next to this Kitsune person wasn't worth the party either. The blue eyes ninja as leaning casually back in his chairs, arms crossed and without a care in the world. Probably one those kids just like Sasuke, no work and all top scores leaving the rest of them to work their asses off for second place. Kiba hated the blonde on principle.

"Be warned their eyes are extremely sharp and if they catch you five times you'll be disqualified. Anyone foolish enough to be caught by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here."

Sasuke frowned, "They make it so there's all kinds of ways you can loose points," he said quietly to himself. Sai, who was sat next to him, spared him a glance but nothing more. Ideally he'd be sat somewhere other than right next to the principle but bad luck of the draw had landed him this seat. He could see Lira taunting Sakura a few rows in front of him and Kiba glaring at Kitsune nearer the front.

"If you want to be considered shinobi then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be," Ibiki smirked, he was enjoying terrorising these kids…well most of them were kids compared to him at least. "One more thing, if any candidate should get a zero and fail the test then the entire team fails."

This time Sakura's forehead hit the table in front of her, they were doomed unless by some miracle Kiba was able to get at least some of the questions right. Lira smirked; this girl's reactions were so over the top it was funny. The chunin exams were bi-annular; it wasn't like she'd never get another shot at them.

"The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes into the testing period. You'll have one hour total. Begin!"

The rustle of paper filled the room as all the present genin flipped over their test papers and prepared their pencils for a vigorously work out. Some people dove right in and wrote whatever came to mind, others analysed all the questions before deciding they were doomed but might as well try anyway.

Kitsune frowned; these weren't genin level questions, chunin at the very least if not full on jounin. There were some even he couldn't do. Hit an enemy a mile away on the battlefield with a shuriken no problem, calculate the exact trajectory given a 40-mile-per-hour headwind? No way. He looked to his sides, the girl, Hinata Hyuuga, writing slowly and carefully pausing every couple of words as if she wasn't quite sure if she was writing the right thing. On his other side was Kiba whose face lost more and more colour and as his eyes scanned the page.

Not a single answer yet and his pencil lay untouched. This wasn't good, amusing though it was to see someone so obviously inferior to himself struggle in such a situation if Kiba failed that meant team 7 was out of the chunin exams. That would mean he, Sai and Lira would drop out at the first opportunity to guard Sasuke but keeping Sasuke in the exams meant there were certain places he had to be at certain times. It would just make their job easier.

The object of the test was simple; gather accurate information. Rather than be disqualified outright for cheating you were penalised for getting caught which, out on a real mission, would probably get you killed. Some of the smarter ones in the room, or the tacticians may have already guessed that but it seems Kiba didn't qualify. He seemed to riding on the tenth question, which wasn't good.

The only way Kitsune could see to guarantee Kiba a place in the competition would be to tell him directly what the point of the exam was, but he couldn't do that. Kitsune was distracted from his inner problem by small ink creature climbing onto his page and settling over various answer boxes. The ink lost its form and sunk into the page to reform as writing but there was one ink creature that remained, poised over the answer box for number eight. This was an answer Kitsune had so he fished a pen from his pocket and dipped it into the creature. He then wrote out the answer. Once done the creature re-emerged leaving behind a paler imprint of the words as it scurried off back to Sai.

"Alright listen up here's the tenth and final question," scratching of pencils stopped as everyone paused to listen, "but before I give you the question there are some more rules that you need to be aware of."

"More rules?" Sakura groaned, as if this test wasn't bad enough already. She was sure she'd been caught cheating off of Lira at least once not that the red head seemed to care. In fact, that snobby girl seemed to be having no problems at all. She was distracted by the noise of the door. The boy from the sand village who had sought to hurt Konohamaru a few days ago had re-entered the room. Hands bound and pulled by one of the sentinels it couldn't have been a pleasant trip to the bathroom.

"Ah made it just in time, I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening. Well take you seat. These rules are unique to question ten, listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you." Once again Ibiki's smirk was followed by several groans as he proceeded to explain the rules for the tenth and final question.

"Well then, rule number 1, each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question. If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine you'll get a zero. In other words you fail and that means of course your other two teammates fail as well."

There were several murmurs after this rule mostly 'Why would someone choose to fail?' and 'Of course we'll take the tenth question.' Kitsune frowned, this didn't follow the pattern. The questions had gotten steadily harder as the test went on so the tenth question should be the hardest. Surely if someone had done badly up till now the tenth would be an impossible question, was this to be a loose, loose situation?

"Not so fast, you didn't let me finish. If you do accept the question but get it incorrect you will not only fail you will be bared from taking the chunin exam ever again."

There were shocked reactions, naturally but what was even more shocking was Kiba's demonstration. Jumping to his feet Kiba pointed an accusatory finger at Ibiki and yelled, "Hey that's bull man, that's ridiculous what kind of bogus rule is that there's lots of people here who have taken the test before."

Ibiki laughed, he genuinely found this amusing…sadistic man. "I guess you're just unlucky, I wasn't making the rules before but I am now. Of course if you don't want to take it you don't have to. If your not feeling confident then by all means skip it, you can come back and try again next year."

Kitsune looked at Kiba, he was pale and biting his lip thinking. This wasn't good, if he dropped out that would be Sasuke out too. Where better to hide a ninja than in a crowd of ninja as they say. Obviously those who were after Sasuke would stay in the competition as long as Sasuke was in the competition. More than likely those here under Orochimaru's service were more than genin skill level anyway.

Sakura let the words sink in, the tenth question didn't scare her but the thought of never making chunin did. She didn't come from a big clan like Sasuke, in fact her grandfather had been the last ninja in their family so she was kind of hoping to go a bit further than genin. Thing was, Sasuke could probably handle the tenth question, she probably could but Kiba? He had dreams of being the best tracker in the ANBU, he wanted to show his mother that he was just as good as his older sister. She couldn't let him do this to himself, he'd fail for sure. She began to raise her hand.

Lira watched Sakura carefully, there was a soppy sort of self-sacrifice expression on his face and she was starring at Kiba's back. Lira had read all their files, Kiba was the smartest of people and Sakura was exactly the kind of girl who would chicken out if it meant doing someone else a favour. She saw the pink haired girl begin to raise her hand and panicked. Snatching Sakura's wrist she hissed, "Don't you dare raise your hand!"

Kitsune looked down at his page as a flicker of movement caught his eye. It was one of Sai's ink creatures. It sunk into his page, '_Do something_' it read.

Kitsune turned to she Lira and Sakura glaring at each other, Lira pinning one of Sakura's wrists to the desk. Sai was sat next to Sasuke who was watching Kitsune. The two boys locked gaze and Sasuke's eyes narrowed; he was challenging Kitsune. Kitsune smirked.

During this whole interaction several people had dropped out of the competition and so, subsequently, had their teams. A quick look around the room told Kitsune that both the sand ninja and the sound ninja with whom he had had previous encounters were still in the competition.

"Hold on a second, the chunin exams are held in different villages each year, do you intend on telling every proctor that whoever may fail the tenth question is never to become a chunin?" Kitsune asked eyeing Ibiki.

"Yes," Ibiki replied, "but you don't have to take it."

"I think you're bluffing," Kitsune said.

"Yeh," Lira called, "I think this is a test of teamwork again, all the tests so far have been."

"Putting your rules in a practical circumstance you're giving us the decision of whether we would stay for our team despite risk to ourselves or run away and leave our team mates to pick up the slack," Kitsune finished. "So if that's the case then I accept your challenge, I'll stay for the tenth question."

Kitsune leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, his eyes did not leave Ibiki's. Kiba and Hinata were both looking at Kitsune, if what he said was true then maybe the tenth question wouldn't be so bad.

"And if you're wrong?" Ibiki asked.

"Then I stay a genin," Kitsune replied, "those are the rules right?"

Ibiki paused and looked around the room, no one seemed to be moving. '_Hm, it seems this boy has given the others some back _bone.' He looked to his sentinels who smiled and nodded, it was over, time for the final question. "Alright, now then, if you're ready, the tenth and final question."

'_78 left, more than I expected and no one seems to be wavering._' Ibiki thought, then he smiled. "Well then I admire your determination if nothing else. For those of you remaining there is only one thing remaining and that's for me to tell you that you've all past the first exam.

"Hold on, what just happened, what do you mean we past?" It was Sakura this time, stuck between a state of tension, shock and happy surprise she'd jumped to her feet and said the first thing that came into her head. "Where's the tenth question?"

Ibiki gave a little laugh, "There never was one, not a written one at least actually your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question."

"Wait a second so the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time, is that what you're saying?" this outburst came from the blonde sand ninja, Temari.

"Oh no, not at all," Ibiki turned to look out of the window as he answered, "quite the opposite the first nine questions had an important overriding purpose. To test your ability to surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

"Oh well that explains everything," Temari drawled sarcastically.

"Let me explain you see my objective was to test you as individuals and as a team. Hence why the test was scored on a team basis so you knew that everything you did would directly affect you team. The first nine questions were difficult, too difficult for any genin to solve. The test was designed to make you cheat but you would have needed someone to cheat from so I disguised two chunin who knew the answers to sit in with you," Ibiki explained.

Ibiki then proceeded to reach up and untie his headband that was more like a headscarf. Being part of ROOT Kitsune had heard of the torture that the head of the interrogation squad had suffered but actually seeing it was something else. Slash marks, burn marks, drill holes…what he must had been through. Kitsune wasn't the only one who thought so, everyone in the room's jaws seemed to have gone slack.

"Information, it can be the most valuable weapon in battle, how well you gather intelligence can determine the fate of the mission. There will be times you'll have to risk your life to get it. Of course you must always consider the source of your information, intelligence gathered from an enemy is not always necessarily accurate. Always bare this in mind; disinformation can be more dangerous than no information at all. That's why you were put in the position that you had to gather correct intelligence, cheat in order to survive."

Ibiki then went on to explain the tenth question but Lira wasn't listening. Their mission, this was exactly what they were trying to do, find information about where Orochimaru was, who was following him. Orochimaru was a sannin, one of the three legendary ninja, Jiraiya; the Toad Sage, Tsunade; the Slug Princess and Orochimaru; the Snake. He was dangerous and he could kill all three of them, even Kitsune without even trying.

"These are the qualities required of a chunin squad leader, those who choose the safer of two paths, those whose determination falters in the face of adversity, those who would put their comrades lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own. Those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honour will never be able to call themselves chunin, not while I'm here.

As for the rest of you, you have successfully answered the ten questions I have put to you, you have earned the right to move on to the next stage. I declare this stage of the exam complete and I wish you luck."

"Aw right!" Kiba grinned and Akamaru gave a yip of pleasure but was distracted by the window shattering.

What appeared to be a ball of black cloth came hurtling through the window. Two kunai attached to corners of black cloth were flung at the ceiling, lodging themselves firmly. The black cloth unravelled and out stepped a tall, purple haired woman. Her short skirt and mesh top left a lot of young male genin drooling. To Sai, her entrance was impressive if nothing else.

"Heads up boys and girls this is no time to be celebrating! I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi. You ready for the second test?" She was fierce, no doubt about it, a fact that soon dissipated the drool forming on the mouths of most of the male genin. "Let's go, follow me!"

"You're early again," Ibiki told her as he stepped out from behind the black banner.

Anko seemed to blush slightly but quickly recovered as she scanned the room, "How many are there? Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy, you must be getting soft."

"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year," Ibiki smirked.

"Hm," Anko made a contemplative sound, "they sure don't look it." She smirked, "Trust me, when I'm done with then, more than half will be eliminated."

"Huh, more than half?" Sakura said sounding shocked, "really?"

"We're going to be pitted against each other then," Lira said.

"Hm, this is gunna be fun," Anko took a moment to smile before her fierce expression came back, "Alright you maggots have had it easy so far but things are gunna be different starting first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where you're to meet me. Dismissed."

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_Right, we're at the interesting point, now things start to deviate. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter :D_

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Review Responses:-

xXUrbanRegalityXx - Lol, glad you like. Hope you enjoyed this chapter too

CryingTearsOfBlood - Enjoy

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lady sakura cosmos - Muchos gracias

darkbloodwolfe - He's not going to be introduced to emotions shall we say but some of the old Naruto is going to break through a bit.


	5. Stage 4

**Some of the beginning may be familiar but from there it gets different.**

"You know something Kitsune, I hate you," Lira snapped as she set up her fifteenth trap. The three of them were in the forest of death setting up as many traps as they could between now and dawn.

Kitsune ignored her and Lira fumed silently as she moved onto trap number sixteen. "I mean, I get the point of keeping Sasuke in the exams but 26 teams including ours? If you had just kept your mouth shut we wouldn't be hear setting up these stupid traps."

"Both Kiba and Sakura were going to cave," Sai said quietly, "we couldn't afford that."

"Yeh but we were sat next to the entirety of team 7 why couldn't we have just kept them in the exams instead of inspiring **everyone**?" Lira demanded hotly as she scattered leaves over the net she had laid.

"Because then someone might have noticed," Kitsune said, "We're not supposed to be attracting attention."

"Not attracting attention?" Lira exclaimed loudly, "You gave a speech!"

"Our association with team 7 must remain discrete, our overall impression doesn't have to be," Kitsune explained.

"Fine," Lira huffed and for the rest of the night they continued their work in silence.

₪ ¤ º _**The Next Morning – 44**__**th**__** Battle Training Zone **_º ¤ ₪

The sun was high in the sky and there wasn't a cloud to be seen in the clear blue sky. It was a perfect day to be out on a picnic with your loved one but for several young aspiring ninjas that was the last thing on their minds. Some were nervous, some were confident and some seemed to show nothing at all. Lira did not fit into any of these categories. Covering a rather large yawn with her hand she blinked around and held a hand to her head in a vain attempt to combat a growing headache.

A little earlier three little brats from the academy had turned up delaying the start of the exams for a whole ten minutes. She was sat on a rock between both Kitsune and Sai who were both silent and still. She felt a little insecure between the two if she wasn't honest. Not that she wasn't a good ninja but she had never taken to the ROOT training quite like they had. Hot tempered and blunt she sometimes found herself feeling like a child in their shadows despite being two years older than Sai who himself was a year older that Kitsune. Not that anyone was truly sure of his or her age in ROOT.

No one really knew much about their past either, all she could remember was that she had a sister whose name had been Karin but her parents, where she came from…that was all a mystery. Sai had grown up in ROOT all he could claim was a vague attachment to one of the older boys whom Sai had referred to as brother before he died. Kitsune…well, he'd been Kitsune ever since some incident that had happened several years ago. Kitsune himself didn't remember what happened only that when he woke up he was Kitsune.

"It's almost time," Kitsune muttered, "Lira, can you sense Sasuke?"

"No," Lira answered.

"Then go over to him and make sure you can," Kitsune hissed and Lira flushed.

"What do expect me to do? Jump on him like that Ino girl?"

"If that's what it takes."

Lira fumed silently as she stood up and dusted herself off. Lira, though not a particularly strong or chakra abundant kunoichi had one special technique. The ability to sense someone's unique chakra after having touched him or her skin-to-skin only once. She had tried to use it to locate her sister but she couldn't remember what it felt like or perhaps it was just too far out of range.

Swallowing her pride she sidled over to where Sasuke stood in between a nervous looking Sakura and Kiba who was absently stroking Akamaru. "Hey," she said sweetly as she wrapped her arms around Sasuke who tensed, "you're Sasuke right?" she giggled, "You're pretty cute."

Sakura spun around looking incensed, "Get away from him you leach."

"What did you call me?" Lira snapped as her temper flared.

"A leach! Get off of Sasuke!" Sakura yelled her face flushing red and clashing with her pink hair.

"Make me you –" Lira stilled as a kunai shot past her, scraping her cheek and landing in the first somewhere behind her.

"None of that you two," Anko smirked as she ambled over to the pair, "you'll have plenty of time for that inside the forest."

Lira was about to reply when two things happened almost simultaneously. A long forked tongue rolled over her shoulder as another body pressed up behind Lira. Held by that tongue was the Kunai with a sliver of Lira's blood near the tip. The second thing that happened was that a second kunai shot from a holster out of Anko's sleeve and into her hand. The purple haired proctor then held it to the kunai in the tongue of the ninja behind Lira.

Lira gulped and tried to move but found herself trapped, he hand brushed against the tongue and she cringed. Then she froze. An intense feeling of cold passed down her spine paralysing her to her very tips of her being. She took a shuddering breath, she knew this feeling, it was one she had been taught to block out above all others but it was so overwhelming that she couldn't. Fear.

Cold and hard it gripped at her with slimy hands, unable to move, unable to feel only aware of the fear that was encompassing her. Then it stopped, the figure behind her moved away and suddenly all her senses came rushing back. Colour and sound and life returned to the world and the feeling that she would never be warm again faded away.

She released Sasuke and stumbled back, the raven-haired youth glared at her over his shoulder. He obviously hadn't felt it. Retreating to the comfort of her team Lira sat down between the two and was never more thankful for them than she was now.

"What's the matter?" Sai asked, "You froze."

"That grass ninja isn't what she appears," Lira said quietly, "I don't know why but the minute I touched her everything went cold and I couldn't move for the fear."

"She could be Orochimaru, he was known to have developed many face stealing jutsu in his quest for immortality," Kitsune added as he followed the exchange between the grass ninja and Anko before the potential Orochimaru slunk away to her similarly dressed team-mates.

"Do you think he's allied with grass and not sound then?" Lira asked having recovered from her panicked state.

"No, I think it's a face, nothing more," Kitsune replied calmly but inside his mind was working like crazy. Turning over the possibilities in his mind, Orochimaru as a participant, this put Sasuke in even more danger. "Lira, did you get his chakra signature?" She nodded and Kitsune felt a little more confident. If they could see the enemies moves and those of the principle at the same time then perhaps keeping the two apart would be slightly easier. Of course there was always the matter of eliminating as many of the other teams as possible but that could wait.

"Now before we begin this test I have something to hand out to you all," Anko announced as she strolled back to the padlocked gates that guarded the main entrance to _the forest of death_. "It's just a standard consent form," she told them with a lazy smirk as she drew a large wad of papers from inside her jacket.

"Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form and then sign it because some of you might not come back from this test and I have to get you consent to that risk. Otherwise it would be my responsibility," Anko's smirk widened and then she gave a little laugh at the looks of horror on most of the genins faces.

Kitsune smirked too, but for an entirely different reason. Sure it was fun to watch people squirm but if he and his traps had their way less than half of this years candidates would not make it out of this forest alive.

"Here, hand these out," she instructed as she passed the papers to the nearest genin who took them in shaking hands. He took a sheet and passed the pile onto his other teammates.

"Now," Anko, "I'll explain what you'll be doing. Now you need to realise that this will test all of your survival skills. First I'll give you all a description of the terrain. Surrounding the forest are forty-four locked entrance gates, inside there are rivers running throughout the forest and in the centre, a locked tower. Ten km from each gate it standards and it is in this confined area that you'll undergo the survival test. The test consists of anything goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls." Anko then proceeded to hold up a blue scroll and a brown scroll, each with the symbol for heaven and earth on them.

"Both of them?" Sakura asked.

"Yes," Anko replied with a smirk as Sakura's face fell, "you'll need both an earth scroll and a heaven scroll. All together 26 teams will be taking part in this test and I'll hand one kind of each scroll to each team in an even distribution. So that's what you'll be vying for."

"How do we pass?" asked another genin.

"Your entire test must bring one of each scroll to the tower. But there are some rules, the first is that you have to make it to the tower with both scrolls in **five days**," Anko stressed.

"Five day?" Choji wailed, "but what'll we do for food?"

"Just look around," Anko replied with a casual shrug as though this was the most obvious thing in the world, "the forest is full of things to eat."

"And things that can kill you," Kabuto called out, "there are man eating beast and poisonous plants in there."

"Oh man," Chouji gulped.

"Quiet Choji," Ino snapped, "there's a reason it's called **survival training** you know."

"Surrounded by enemies, no time to rest, we'll need to keep a constant watch." It seemed that even Sasuke had something to say which could either show that he was nervous or that he merely wished to psyche out the rest of the competition.

"This test is all about your endurance behind enemy lines, it's a gruelling test and I'm sure some of you won't be up to it," Anko continued.

"Can we quit?"

Anko gave an amused laugh and smirked down at the genin who had spoken, "Quit? Quit?" she repeated, "you wouldn't be able to stand up in the middle of a battle and say 'I quit' would you? No and the same applies here. You could quit I suppose, but it'll probably get you killed. Unless you can get the two scrolls to the tower before time runs out you'll be in there for the whole five days."

The genin looked very worried about this but Anko didn't seem to notice, instead she turned her attention back to the crowd, "Now," she said loudly, "there are a few other ways you can be disqualified, if you get to the tower but only have one scroll you'll fail, if one of your team members is incapacitated or dead then you'll fail and one final thing. None of you may look at the contents of the scrolls till you enter the tower."

"What if it just opens, in the wind or something?" Kiba asked nonchalantly.

"Let me put it this way," Anko drawled with another amused smirk, "You don't want to know! There will be time as a ninja when you have to carry secret documents; the point of this test is to test your integrity. Okay we're done, each team take your consent forms and exchange them over there for your scrolls. After that, each team pick and a gate and you'll be lead inside."

Everyone began looking over their forms again, those who had already completed them began making their way over to the shack where three jonin sat waiting with the scrolls.

"Oh and one ore word of advice," Anko called out to them, pausing for effect, "…just don't die!"

After than final word of advice the jonins pulled a cloth across the booth to stop other teams form knowing what teams had what scrolls and who of that team was carrying it. Once they had announced they were ready all the teams got to their feet.

Anko watched them carefully, '_I wonder if any of them will survive this?_' she though idly. She looked over to the team that everyone had been talking about since the recommendations, the team from nowhere. She and the other proctors had taken it upon themselves to keep a close watch on them. The girl seemed normal enough, hot-tempered and a little too quick to act but human none the less. The dark haired one didn't seem to feel anything, expressionless and unsociable, the only time he seemed to be moved as when he was sketching or watching the blonde.

And that was just it, the blonde. He was obviously the leader of the team and at a simple glance he'd just be your average genin waiting to take the test but that didn't sit right for Anko. To her he seemed to be feeling everything he was supposed to feel and that didn't seem right. It was like he'd honed emotions down to a fine-art and was dancing on the line of having no emotions at all and showing them all the time to a point that went beyond excitable and more in the regions of a puppet.

Of course they weren't the only talked about team, team 7 had their fair share of a following. Admittedly that was mostly due to the Uchiha avenger on the team and Kakashi's spat with Iruka but still they were an odd mix. The stoic and independent Sasuke Uchiha, the rash and self-assured Kiba Inuzuka and the girl who seemed to hold herself in high steam above those she believed less than her and yet not confident in her own abilities, Sakura Haruno.

Then there were the three sand siblings, one of the oddest combinations of three. For a start they were all different ages, not normal as most teams were formed from that years graduates from each villages respective academy. But then, she supposed, they were the children of the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Sand. The man himself had probably trained them and yet they seemed to share no family bonds. The elder brother and sister seemed amicable enough but in the presence of the youngest brother they seemed to shrink like weeds deprived of sunlight.

Coming out of her reverie Anko received notice that all the teams had received scrolls, "Alright listen up, all the teams have now got scrolls so go to your respect gates and wait there. When the gates open the test is on."

The teams scattered and Anko was left with a feeling anxiousness deep inside her that she couldn't shake.

Kitsune, Sai and Lira went to their gate and stood around it. "Everyone know the plan?" Kitsune asked them. Sai and Lira nodded, they were more than ready. They should have this done well within the time limit. The lock to their door was unlocked by a jonin and soon after the doors swung open and the team Kitsune took off into the forest.

₪ ¤ º _**The Grass Ninja **_º ¤ ₪

"You know who we're looking for," the female grass ninja who had returned Anko's kunai hissed with blatant delight.

"Yeh those three brats," one of the two male grass ninja replied with an evil grin.

"We'll get the scroll from those rookies in no time," the other of the two leered.

₪ ¤ º _**Team 7 **_º ¤ ₪

"Alright," Kiba cried, "let's go cream those punks!"

Sakura gave an affirmative nod and Sasuke smirked as the three leapt for the trees and they were off. Sasuke was confident that they were ready, it should be easy to track down one of the weaker teams and gain their scroll and he'd keep on conquering until they had the right scroll. After all, if he couldn't even become a chunin, how could he ever hope to face his brother?

₪ ¤ º _**Team 8 **_º ¤ ₪

Wasting no time Hinata Hyuuga had already activated the birthright of her clan, the byakugan. The trademark stress lines crossed her face as her vision turned blue, the chakra of her teammates and everything around them laid bare before her. Rotating her vision by 360° she immediately identified the closest team with the scroll they needed and in a flash the three were off. But they would never reach their target.

₪ ¤ º _**Team 10 **_º ¤ ₪

The tactician, the muscle and the spirit stealer; survival was their game and the first pawn had just been played. Now all they had to do was wait for the enemies break move and then they would be on the offensive. Soon it would be checkmate and Shikamaru would be there to knock down the king.

₪ ¤ º _**Team Gai **_º ¤ ₪

Enthusiastic to prove his chakra lacking way of the ninja Lee was speeding forward much to the chagrin of his teammates. Not that they were unable to maintain the same pace but their endurance at this level was nothing compared to Lee's and this test wasn't just about speed. It required finesse, technique and just the slightest hint of bloodlust and Neji had all of those in abundance.

₪ ¤ º _**The Sand Siblings**_º ¤ ₪

Gaara's head was already pounding; his mother was driving him on. There was blood to be shed, a goal to be conquered, the demon within him roared and the mark of bordering insanity flashed through his eyes. Temari and Kankuro matched him pace for pace, saying nothing and concentrating without pause. Other teams were the enemy, their brother was their enemy and over and above this trivial test there was the ultimate mission. This was just a step on the ladder to victory and if they slipped even an inch they would plummet to their deaths.

₪ ¤ º _**Team Kitsune - Lira **_º ¤ ₪

The three looked at the three squirming ninja caught in their trap. The more they fought the tighter their bonds became. "Where is your scroll?" Lira asked giving them a lazy smile.

None of them gave her an answer but one did spit at her. She sneered and whipped it away, "I'll ask again, which of you pathetic excuses for ninja is carrying your scroll?" Her voice was raised and contained the slightest hint of a growl.

Again no co-operative response, "Well then," she smirked idly, "as you seem to have lost your tongues you won't mind loosing your hearts too."

"What –" one of them gasped and the next thing that was heard from the clearing was a blood-curdling scream. Lira's lip curled upwards as she drew the kunai from the ninja's chest as blood bubbled up from the gaping whole. The light had died from the man's eyes and a trickle of blood ran down his chin from his mouth. His teammates looked at her in horror.

"So sorry gentlemen, but you're journey ends here."

That was the last thing either of the two remaining ninja heard as there chests were slashed open. When they had stopped struggling the bonds loosened and the three lifeless bodies fell to the forest floor with a thud. A small scroll, bond in blue rolled out from the middle one's trouser pocket.

"Hm, that wasn't so hard after all," Lira smiled as she picked it up. That was her second team eliminated, time to meet up at the agreed spot. Two teams each had been Kitsune's proposal. Provided nothing else got in the way first.

₪ ¤ º _**Team Kitsune - Sai **_º ¤ ₪

The female of the team spluttered and gurgled as she found her airway blocked by a wad of ink. The liquid substance had already stained her tongue blue-black. Sai hated to waste his most precious resource in such an uncouth manner but the sooner he got their scroll the better.

"Alright, I've got it, it's in my bag just please let her go," the weaker of the two males cried. Tears were streaming down his face and his affection for the girl who was slowly dieing before his eyes was obvious even to Sai who felt no emotions what so ever. Except when it came to Kitsune, or Naruto. Since his first brother had died Sai had easily adapted to the ways of ROOT but then Naruto had come along. The big ball of sunshine that he was with his dreams of becoming Hokage, it had touched something in Sai's heart that he hadn't though remained.

He faltered for a moment, imaging himself and Naruto in the place of these ninja, what would he do if Naruto were in the girl's place? Would he look on as the other team member did or cry and beg for mercy? For a moment he considered releasing them, depriving them of their scroll, but releasing them none the less and then he realised something. Kitsune wasn't stupid enough to get caught.

Walking to the ninja's bag he plucked the earth scroll form it and placed it in his own ninja pouch. His first out of the two required before he would head to the meeting point. Unravelling a blank scroll he dipped his brush into the ink well and began to paint.

"Hey what are you doing, let her go now," the emotional one was yelling now, angry and scared.

The lines of Sai's painting came together fluidly and from the scroll leapt the imprint of a giant tiger. Growling and baring its black fangs that dripped ink like saliva it dived forward and bit of their heads. It turned to Sai and padded back to the scroll the artist had laid on the ground. It sunk into the page and the once blue-black ink now had a feint tinge of red. Sai thought it was one of his more realistic creations.

₪ ¤ º _**Team Kitsune - Kitsune **_º ¤ ₪

Kitsune fingered his pouch to make sure the three scrolls were there, as leader it had been an obvious and potentially harmful decision for him to carry their teams scroll. But then he thought that nay enemy who assumed he would be carrying their scroll would be equally likely to assume that a lesser team-mate would be carrying it in his stead as Kitsune might be _too obvious_ a choice. It was these kind of cyclic decisions that often kept teams arguing for hours and it was one of those very arguments that had gotten Kitsune's last round of victims caught in his trap. They had surrendered their scroll easily believing him merciful but they had been wrong…very wrong.

Kitsune wiped the blood from his cheek, not his own of course he wasn't so stupid as to let anyone get close enough to injure him. He wiped it on the leaves of a nearby tree and made for the meeting point.

₪ ¤ º _**Team 7 **_º ¤ ₪

The three stopped as the sounds of screams reached their ears. A shiver ran down Sakura's spine, "That sounded like someone screaming," she whispered. A flock of birds flew over a clearing in the dense canopy above them, their calls echoing the screams and making Sakura swallow hard just to keep her fear in check. "I do not like this place," she admitted turning to look at Sasuke for reassurance.

"Oh come on," Kiba waved a hand nonchalantly, "it's nothing to worry about Sakura-chan. This'll be a piece of cake, with Akamaru and me we're bound to find another team easy."

"That may be true," Sasuke said thoughtfully, "but we haven't run into anyone yet."

"It's a big forest," Sakura suggested but Sasuke shook his head.

"It's more than that, you saw the way they all looked at us back at the academy. They probably see us as easy targets, so if we're the ideal team to beat then why hasn't anyone come after us yet?" Sasuke wondered allowed, he wasn't really looking for an answer.

"That's a good point," Kiba admitted. True he didn't like Sasuke and did consider themselves somewhat rivals, especially for Sakura's attention, but he didn't begrudge that the Uchiha had his moments. After all, Sasuke may have the Sharingan but his hunting skills would never match up to his and Akamarus.

₪ ¤ º _**Team Kitsune - Sai **_º ¤ ₪

Kitsune was already leaning against a tree when Sai approached, an inky butterfly was resting on the back of the blonde's right hand, it was definitely him. Walking over to him in silence Sai found a comfortable position and settled back to wait. They wouldn't be moving on without Lira; after all they needed an update on Sasuke's position. With six out of the twenty-six teams eliminated it would be time to start circling team 7.

The plan was get within a certain radius of team 7 and circle them, eliminating any enemies that got too close without making themselves known.

"Hey guys," Lira called as she entered the clearing, she gave a little giggle and held up two scrolls. "Mission accomplished," she said with a wink.

Sai and Kitsune didn't even need to look at each other, within seconds Lira was flat on her back with Kitsune's boot chocking her windpipe and Sai's digging into her diaphragm. "W-what ar-are you g-guys do-doing," she spluttered, desperately trying to get air into her lungs.

"You'll see," Kitsune gave her a dangerous smile.

Unable to get enough air and maintain the jutsu the henge dissipated leaving a struggling ninja in it's wake. The two scrolls _Lira_ had held up vanished with a little pop and soon after the body beneath their feet fell still. No sooner had the impersonator suffocated that his two teammates fell from the trees, their throats slit. The real Lira then jumped into the clearing and held up three scrolls, "Like taking candy from a baby."

The two stiffened and didn't relax until she held up her own inky butterfly on her right hand. Another scream disturbed their little re-union, Lira smirked, "Think we've got time for one more scroll?"

"Alright," Kitsune replied and the three bounded off in the direction of the scream.

What they saw was team 8 caught in one of Kitsune's nets. "Well, well," Lira smirked, "if it isn't one of the rookie teams."

"You're rookies too," the boy called Kyo called back.

Lira laughed, "Are we now?" she asked leaning in towards him knowing he couldn't reach her as much as he tried. The girl Hinata Hyuuga squirmed uncomfortably beneath him, a blush spread like wildfire across her face. "Are you sure about that?"

"Don't bait them Lira," Kitsune ordered, "Just tells us which one of you has your scroll."

"Ple-please just l-let us g-go," the Hyuuga girl stammered and Kitsune sighed, did they never learn?

"Look out," Sai snapped suddenly and the three scattered as a horde of leaches fell from the tree right where they had been standing. Shino frowned.

Kitsune sneered, "Nice try bug boy but you didn't think we came unprepared do you?" The ambiguity of their threats was annoying Shino, he was sure the leaches would get them, very rarely was anyone able to sense them.

"Lira?"

The blonde turned to look at the red haired girl at the black haired boy's worried tone. She was stood stock still, her eyes unfocused and her hands were shaking. Slowly her head rose and life came back to her eyes but her fearful expression did not change. "It's the enemy, he's practically on top of the principle."

Both of the boy's eyes widened and without another word the girl sped off, the other two in hot pursuit. Kyo waited until they were well out of site before he gulped, "You don't think they were actually doing to…you know…kill us?"

Shino didn't answer and both Kyo and Hinata felt shivers go down their backs.

**-------------------------------------------------**

**Well what did you guys thin. I'm not much into gore so I tried not to get too graphic but I hope it made some of you uncomfortable. Bet some of you thought I was going to get read of team 8 neh? Not yet my friends, not yet :D**

**-------------------------------------------------**

CryingTearsOfBlood - Thanks :D

Raeshi - Glad you like it

lady sakura cosmos - Merci

Akabane-San - Brotherly love, a bit of confusion later on and then maybe back to brotherhood...still experimenting in my head. Pure brilliance? YOu really think so :D I'm flattered...you don't know where I live do you?

x-Xanti-x - Yes I went to Otakon, cosplayed Temari no less and hopefully I shall be returning next year...it falls on my birthday how amazing is that? Maybe we could meet up next year:D


	6. Stage 5

**I'm so sorry I've been gone so long. It's my last year of school and Christmas through to now was a very stressful time but I'm gunna have a bit of a break from work for the next couple of weeks so I may update some of my other fics too :D**

Kitsune and Sai were racing forwards behind Lira who was straining her senses to locate Sasuke. They were too far away to get there quickly, it would take them at least an hour to get there going at top speed. Then there was the fact that Orochimaru would be there and separating him from Sasuke would be difficult if near impossible. That was provided the boy was still alive when they got there.

¤ º _**Team 7 **_º ¤

Akamaru gave a whine from where he was cowering insides Kiba's hoodie, Kiba himself gulped. He couldn't take his eyes away from the grass ninja who had set upon them and was currently burning their only scroll before their eyes. Sakura wasn't much better off, she was shaking from head to foot, tears trickling down her face.

It was disgusting, Sasuke had just subjected the grass ninja to a raging inferno but it only seemed to have melted away a second skin to reveal a white face and an eye like that of a snake. Sasuke was in a bad way, the wound in his leg from earlier was throbbing painfully, his eyes stung from using the sharingan and his chakra was rapidly running out. He'd gone all out on his last offence and he didn't think he'd be able to outrun this monster if it came to that.

"I don't know who you are," Sakura cried, "but if we never meet again it'll be too soon."

"Oh we will meet again," the woman purred, but her voice was changing. Deeper, softer and more like a hiss. It sent a chill down all their spines. Her hands came together in a myriad of hand signs that only Sasuke's sharingan could follow. But she was interrupted by a shower of shuriken and kunai, this time not from Sasuke.

A thud and suddenly two pairs of feet landed in front of Kiba and Sakura who were both crouched a branch away from Sasuke.

Kiba looked up to see the back of the black haired boy from the run in with that sand ninja and Konohamaru. In front of Sakura was the red haired girl. "Are you alright?" the boy in front of him asked. He had pulled out a scroll and was currently holding a paint brush over the surface, Kiba hardly thought this was the time for life drawing.

"Yes," Kiba replied, thankful that someone else had shown up that didn't seem intent on hurting them further.

"So you are with sound," that had been the blonde. He was standing higher up in the tree, they followed his gaze to see the grass ninja crouched a tree away. "But you'll have needed a spy, who is it I wonder."

"Damn it, what the hell is he doing," Lira hissed through clenched teeth. She had briefly spared Orochimaru a glance and she'd nearly been paralysed with fear. If they hadn't had rigorous psychological training for the past two months to prepare for this mission she may be like Sakura. Cowering and shaking with uncontrollable fear as her own death played before her eyes.

"So you're the team that came out of no where," the grass ninja hissed, half smirking and half sneering. "Well if you want to play."

Kitsune moved instantly, Orochimaru was winding his way up the tree towards him. Jumping for the next branch he forced chakra into his feet to keep his balance and turned but Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen. The hiss was all the warning he got as a giant snake reared up behind him and charged him, cursing he jumped again. Falling to another branch lower down he flung a barrage of kunai at the belly of the snake before it could follow. The kunai bounced of the hide with a clinking sound.

Kitsune looked up, but where Orochimaru had previously been standing on top of the snake he was nowhere to be seen. Then he saw Lira move out of the corner of his eye, what was she chasing? And then he saw it, the ripple in the bark of the branch Sasuke was still standing transfixed on.

"Move you moron," Lira yelled talking him off the branch and falling with him as Orochimaru burst out below where Sasuke had just been standing.

"Sasuke," Sakura cried out in dismay, still too much in shock to move.

"Get up," Sai hissed at both her and Kiba. Akamaru whined in agreement and slowly Kiba began to force himself to his feet; he had to get away from here. This grass ninja or sound ninja, whatever she was reeking of snake and danger. They couldn't fight this enemy; they would only die. "Come on," Sai urged grabbing Sakura by the arm and hoisting the girl up. Her legs shook beneath her and it was almost like holding a dead weight until finally she seemed to take hold of herself and stood, albeit rather unsteadily.

Meanwhile Orochimaru was dodging between all of Kitsune's attacks and frantically trying to get at Sasuke but the boy was tired, his sharingan had faded and he didn't have enough chakra to take up the fight again. Instead Kitsune was depending on Lira being able to identify where Orochimaru was and move Sasuke enough. They had to get away; this wouldn't work. Orochimaru had far more chakra, they would just continue this game of cat and mouse until no one could fight him any longer and then Sasuke wouldn't stand a chance.

Kitsune analysed the possibilities, Orochimaru certainly didn't want to kill Sasuke, he wanted his sharingan. Perhaps if they threatened to stab out his eyes? No that was a stupid suggestion, ransoming the principle would just give them two things to worry about. Holding Sasuke down and avoiding Orochimaru but what they were doing now wasn't any good either.

"Impressive little girl," Orochimaru hissed as his giant snake pet cornered Lira and Sasuke. "You don't have the sharingan yet you seem to be able to follow my movements, but then you do seem familiar. Yes, you have the same hair and eyes, tell me, do you share her chakra sensing abilities."

"What are you talking about you bastard," Lira snapped trying not to show how tired she was. She was good for tracking and high-speed chases, not constant dodging and alternating between defence and offence. That and she had to worry about the Uchiha behind her.

"Yes, that must be it. I remember that you touched me before this exam, is that how you recognise the chakra signatures. No doubt you'll be able to find my sound subordinates in the same way," Orochimaru gave a leer, "how interesting."

Then he unhinged his jaw and out of his throat, dripping in saliva and who knows what else came a long shining sword. Without a moment's hesitation he charged at the two, Lira tried to move but she'd made the fatal mistake. She'd met Orochimaru's gaze full on. Now her legs wouldn't obey her, her arms fell at her sides, she was going to die, that sword would go right through her.

A roar brought her back to her senses; Orochimaru had been knocked off course by a giant ink black tiger. It roared again and clawed at the snake-man who dispelled it with a fire jutsu. But it gave her an opening. Grabbing Sasuke by the back of his colour and by the arm she jumped and took them both to where Sai was standing with his scroll, Kiba and Sakura behind him.

"We have to get out of here, we can't fight him," Lira panted, a hint of panic entering her voice.

"We have no choice right now, if we try to run he'll follow and he'll easily catch us with these three in this state. You yourself are not much better," Sai said quietly, following Kitsune's movements. The blonde ninja had just engaged in hand to hand combat with the snake, kicking and punching before leaping away, hand springing from one branch and back onto another further back.

"How nice of you to gather in one place," Orochimaru hissed darkly, a floury of smaller snakes then sprung from his body and sped towards the five gathered higher up.

"Scatter," Lira yelled and jumped, Kiba, Sakura, Sai and Sasuke all did the same.

"Why are you helping us," Sasuke demanded of Sai who was crouched next to him, hidden in a thick part of the canopy way above Orochimaru.

Sai didn't reply for a moment, "We are all Konoha genin."

Sasuke didn't say anything but both boys were well aware that they didn't believe that for a second.

"Oh Sasuke, come out, come out wherever you are, don't you want to play anymore? And you were so feisty earlier, perhaps you aren't better than Itachi after all," Orochimaru jeered looking up and around. He could tell two of the brats were up in the canopy, another pair was on the ground and the final two were on either side of him, hiding amongst the trees.

Now whom should he got for first, obviously one of the pairs. These three were obviously guarding Sasuke from him, perhaps Sarutobi wasn't as senile as he had suspected. But still, to send mere genin against him was a fool's decision but their skills were impressive. The girl had chakra sensing abilities almost as good as that of Karin, the one whom he had left in charge of one of his bases but she seemed to have no memory of her sister. The black haired boy that looked so like Sasuke hadn't shown much potential but his ink technique was interesting.

Then there was the blonde, obviously the leader and extremely talented for one so young. The marks on his face were not that of any Konoha clan that Orochimaru knew of and he knew them all. But back to the decision at hand, hm…choices, choices…or better yet…

Lira was crouched next to Sakura a hand firmly placed over the other girl's mouth. Sakura was crying heavily and uncontrollably now, the girl was terrified and Lira didn't much fancy being stuck with her. But the pink haired girl's chances of her survival without her were rapidly dwindling. She knew Sai and Sasuke were up in the canopy, Kitsune was off the their right and Kiba on the left. Orochimaru seemed to be trying to decide whom to attack.

She strained her senses to see if he was making seals, reading some kind of jutsu but nothing. Sakura screamed and Lira's head snapped around, her eyes rolling out of her head and looking to see the large snake that had bitten Sakura's ankle. Blood was welling up from the wound and Sakura had gone very pale. Lira took a kunai and stabbed the wretched thing through the head before prizing its fangs loose from the other girl's leg.

There wasn't time to bandage the wound, Sakura's scream had distracted the six genin and Orochimaru was already charging upwards.

Lira ran out from their hiding place and yelled, "Sai, get out of there!"

Ink monsters of all kinds fell from the canopy covering Orochimaru almost completely in ink. It glowed red and there was a horrible hissing sound and the smell of burning flesh. The boiling ink technique. But Orochimaru didn't stop, he shed the melting hide like a snake shedding it's skin and sped on upwards.

Sai and Sasuke fell from the trees, shuriken spun around Orochimaru and Sasuke tightened his strings binding Orochimaru and cutting into him like ribbons. "Substitution!" Sasuke cried in dismay as the snake form of Orochimaru melted to mud. Sai and Sasuke landed with a thud on the branch and looked around.

A yelp and a roar of pain alerted them to Kiba. A snake had wrapped itself around Akamaru and bitten the poor thing in the neck. Kiba was howling along with his canine friend and made to tear the snake away from him. Blood flew all over his hands as he cradled the whimpering animal to his chest. He didn't have time to move out of the way as the grate wave of wind swept him off his feet and careening into the trunk of a tree. His back smashed against it and Lira heard a crack. Not good. The brown haired boy fell to the ground in a dead feint, curled protectively around a still whimpering Akamaru.

Sakura was growing paler and sweating now, she whimpered in pain, the snake had obviously been poisonous and she wouldn't last longer if they didn't get out of here. But Lira couldn't leave Sakura or Kiba and Orochimaru knew that damn him. It was his way of getting them out of the way. Six genin were harder to wear down than three.

Sasuke seemed to have gotten some of his strength back but Orochimaru had vanished. Kitsune had joined him and Sai and they were all stood in a triangle back to back. "What now?" hissed Sasuke.

"We have to get out of here," Kitsune replied.

"How?" Sai asked.

"Kitsune to the right," Lira yelled and Kitsune's head snapped around,

His intense blue eyes bright alert barely had time to register the flurry of snakes that were heading towards them. Sai sent out ink snakes that wrapped around those incoming and bit at their necks and wrapped them apart but Kitsune had seen what none of the other's had. The head in the midst of the hydra like formation.

The snakes fell upon the three of them, below Sakura let out one last scream of 'SASUKE!' before feinting from the poison that was slowing down her system. Lira strained her eyes and her senses. She could still sense all four of them, that was something at the very least but they were still buried amongst the snake bodies that were slowly turning to mud. Large clumps of the sticky brown mass were falling from the trees and the three boys came into view. Sai had been knocked over to the other side of the branch on with they had been standing. Sasuke had fallen over backwards and was resting up on his elbows gazing above him.

Kitsune was hunched over, his knees bent and his arms hanging loosely. His bright blonde hair streaked with leaves, dirt and the odd speck of blood covered his eyes. And then Lira saw it, the head attached to that long stretching neck with its fangs gum deep in Kitsune's neck.

Kitsune was shaking and spluttering in pain. His teeth clenched to hold back the groan of pain as Orochimaru released his hold and the head flew back towards the estranged body with a hissing sound. He collapsed to his knees, practically straddling Sasuke who was staring at him in terror.

Sasuke panted heavily, he'd been holding his own against the press of the snakes, vaguely aware of a whistling sound amongst the thud of bodies and the hiss of the snakes. Then he'd felt a pressure on his chest, he was being pushed. His concentration faltered and he stumbled, catching himself enough to pump chakra into his hands to hold onto the tree branch and not topple over the side.

The snakes melted to mud around him and he was left half covered in the stinking mess with Kitsune standing over him, feet either side of his thighs. He looked up at the shaking boy to see the head of that grass ninja, now completely white, with yellow snake eyes and purple markings. Thin lips and a mouth that was too wide to be completely human. As he watched the fangs came out and a trickle of blood ran down Kitsune's neck. The blonde collapsed forward on his knees but not enough to put his weight on Sasuke and trap the onyx haired boy beneath him.

"Sai, Lira," Kitsune ground out reaching back with one hand to grip at his neck furiously, "get them to the tower…now!"

Kitsune was shaking more violently now and Sasuke could only stare as the markings on Kitsune's face became more prominent, more than mere lines but as if some animal had taken three long rivulets out of his face with blunt claws leaving deep, jagged scars. His teeth were bared and clenched and as Sasuke watched his canines began to get longer, sharper, more like Kiba's, more like that of an animal. The nails of Kitsune's other hand were getting longer and sharper too, like claws.

Then Kitsune opened his eyes and Sasuke saw blazing, angry red and for a moment he wasn't on a tree branch in the middle of a dangerous forest with the most fearsome opponent he had ever faced in his life only feet away. No, he was stood before a giant cage, long iron bars reaching far above into a towering sealing, two great gates held shut by a paper seal. Then he could see those blazing red eyes and for a moment he thought they were the sharingan but before he could think he was drawn back. Thrown forcefully back into his own head and then he felt wind rushing past him and heard the thundering of feet on branched.

An arm clenched around his waist and Sasuke looked up to see Sai, Kiba was under his other arm; Akamaru clinging to the back of his master hoodie which was ripped and blood stained and covered in dirt. Just up ahead he could see Lira holding Sakura in a piggy-back style.

Sasuke scanned around but Kitsune wasn't with them.

"Where-"

"Ssh," Sai hissed, not even looking at him, "Lira, is he following us?"

"Not yet," Lira said her voice shaking slightly, "but Kitsune is running out of chakra fast, he won't last long."

"We won't get far if we don't pick up the pace," Sai replied.

"This girl isn't as light as she looks alright," Lira snapped.

"No," Sai then did look down at Sasuke, "can you run?"

Sasuke gave a nod and the group of five stopped for a moment so Sai could lower Sasuke to his feet. The dark haired boy brushed himself down, he wanted to ask questions but there wasn't time. What was important was putting as much distance between that monster and themselves. Strangely enough, he found himself hoping that the blonde would be alright…he'd never worried about anyone before, not since before he'd lost everyone he cared about.

Lira fished in her leg pouch and drew out a compass, "The tower is that way," she said pointing.

"Then we go that way, we're about 3km into the forest, we should make it there in an hour," Sai confirmed.

Sasuke stayed quiet, not used to not being the leader of the group. For all his academy days he'd been the best at the tests, at the practical skills, everything. Kiba liked to pretend he was leader but he'd follow what Sasuke told him to do when push came to shove. But now, to find himself having to depend on these two unknown shinobi worried him. How was he to trust them anyway, sure they had showed up to help but it might be for their own ends, not so much that of team 7.

Then there was the problem of having no scroll at all, if they entered the tower they'd be instantly disqualified. It was all-well and good that they got away alive but he wasn't going to let anything stop him from making chunin. He had to become stronger to defeat his brother.

"There doesn't seem to be any pursuit and we'll need to stop before we reach the tower. I don't know how long this one will go without an antidote," Lira hoisted Sakura a little further up from where the pink haired kunoichi was slipping down her back.

"Alright," Sai replied, "let's get half way there first."

¤ º _**Team 8 **_º ¤

It had taken a little time and a lot of patience on Shino's part to get out of the trap they had been left in. Kyo had insisted on struggling for what felt like an hour but had only been about 10 minutes. He was a reasonably skilled shinobi who specialised in tracking and geography. His memory allowed him to store perfect images of everywhere he'd been making it possible for him to retrace his steps from anywhere, very handy if one got lost.

Hinata was blushing madly at being pressed up against the two boys in a manor that was not befitting for a young lady. Despite being a shinobi she was a Hyuuga first and expected to act with decorum. If her father saw her now, she blushed at the thought; she would not be able to face him.

After disengaging themselves from the trap they had a minor reprieve for they found that that team Kitsune had left them with a rather nice little present. A Heaven scroll that would go very nicely with their Earth scroll, at least that meant there would be no further delays. Upon Shino's instruction Hinata then activated her byakugan and scanned around for enemy shinobi but there were none, the path was clear so the three headed straight for the tower. The sooner they got out of this forest the better.

¤ º _**Team 10 **_º ¤

If there was one way to some up team 10's first few hours in the forest of death it would be pretty grim. Shikamaru had rightly concluded that they were among the weakest shinobi, Ino had of course contested her skills but that wasn't the point, Shikamaru had said. They had good skills and they worked well as a team but this was their first year and they didn't have as much experience as most of the other teams. As such they had decided to head for the tower and set up a trap near there to catch any finishing shinobi. This would be easier than attacking a team outright.

Choji had nearly spoilt the plan by leaving evidence of his 'snacks' in their wake. Ino had had to use her possession jutsu twice and it had been quite draining on her. All in all it would seem they would have to sit through the night and that did not bode well.

¤ º _**Team Kitsune **_º ¤

Lira rolled out a scroll; on it were columns of sealing seals and along the top a long line symbols. Lira then withdrew a kunai and nicked Sakura's palm, she pressed the small wound against the line of symbols along the top of the scroll. The blood bubbled up out of the cut and soaked into the top symbols. A moment passed and one of the columns glowed blue. With a popping sound and a small burst of smoke and vial appeared on the scroll with a light blue solution sloshing gently inside. Picking it up and opened Sakura's mouth and tipped the vial in. Holding Sakura's head back she massaged the pink haired girl's throat till she swallowed. Sealing the now empty vial back into the scroll she rolled it up and put it in her pouch.

She looked over when Akamaru gave a little yip, Kiba's face twitched, then he winced and his eyes cracked open. Akamaru began licking his hand. It would appear that either the dog was immune to the poison of the snake or the one that had bit him was not venomous. Kiba groaned and reached around to rub his back gently.

"It's not broken," Lira said and Kiba's head snapped up. He looked around him to see Sakura laying pale and still on the floor, Sasuke standing against a tree, Lira crouched over Sakura and Sai standing not to far off.

"Where are we?" Kiba asked a little dazed but otherwise no worse for ware.

"We're about half way to the tower," Lira replied, "Sai and I will be escorting you there."

"Sakura?"

"She appears to be stabilising but she won't be waking up for a little while yet," Lira answered quietly. She didn't really want to talk much, her chakra sensing abilities only had a certain radius in which they worked to maximum efficiency, otherwise the chakra just seemed to flicker between being on and being off like a broken light. Right now Kitsune and Orochimaru were on the edge of her periphery and she couldn't tell if Kitsune's alarmingly low chakra was due to distance or genuine fatigue. If his chakra ran out he…she shouldn't be thinking about that.

Ignoring the fight they had fled from she scanned around, none of the ninja she had touched were close, it helped that they had probably taken out most of the competition before they'd got involved in that ridiculous fight. They were supposed to avoid engaging Orochimaru at all costs; she'd yell at Kitsune for that later but then, it was all her fault.

She was supposed to have been watching Sasuke and Orochimaru but instead she'd gotten so caught up in everything else she'd stopped paying attention. Sasuke could have been bitten but now…now Kitsune had the curse seal.

"Lira," she snapped back to reality to see Sai looking down at her, "we're moving."

She nodded and hoisted Sakura back onto her back, Kiba was a little unsteady for a little while but he soon got used to the pace and they made good time. The sun was getting lower in the sky; less light was filtering down through the trees making everywhere seem that much darker.

They were making good time but suddenly Lira froze nearly dropping Sakura.

"Lira?" Sai asked sharply, stopping two branches ahead. Kiba and Sasuke also stopped.

"It's him, he's on our tail and Kitsune is nearly completely out of chakra," Lira replied her voice quivering slightly. She shook herself, now was not the time to panic.

"Then we have to run, if we get to the tower they'll be safe…from him anyway," Sai said and took off, Sasuke, Kiba and Lira following close behind. Lira strained her senses to focus on the two. They were obviously still fighting but Orochimaru was pushing Kitsune back the way they had come but Kitsune wouldn't last long at this rate. Then she saw it, the gaps between the trees widened and there, in front of them was the tower.

They sped forward, the site of their haven spurring them on. It was just as they landed that Sakura gave a little groan and murmured, "Sasuke," before blinking her emerald eyes open. Lira let her down slowly and the pink haired girl put a hand to her head, apparently dizzy. The colour was returning to her face though which was a good sign and her eyes were no longer dull.

"Sasuke, you're alright," she cried joyously throwing her arms around the Uchiha who winced. "Oh, you're leg, it's still bleeding." So it was, he'd bandaged it earlier when they had stopped to administer the antidote but he wasn't very good at anything medical and all the running had kept the wound open.

"Hey," Kiba barked, "what about me?"

"Oh Kiba-kun," Sakura gasped, "You're alright too." Then she spun around to face Lira and Sai, "You, you saved us…wait, where is…"

She trailed off; she was looking at Lira whose face had just gone white as a sheet. Sai eyed her nervously not liking the look on her face. The redhead spun around and ran a little way from the tower, back the way they had just come and scanned left and right. "No," she breathed.

"Lira?" Sai asked, not really wanting the answer.

"It's Kitsune his chakra…it's all gone…all of it," she fell to her knees gazing out into the dark forest and breathing unsteady as if she was about to cry. But she wouldn't, she was a trained shinobi she couldn't cry.

Sakura gasped and put her hands to her mouth, Sasuke's eyes widened and Kiba growled. They knew very well the implications of that statement. Chakra was so interlinked with ones very own life-force that to use it all, to push yourself so far as to use every last drop was the equivalent to spilling every drop of your blood. You would die.

"Get them into the tower," was all Sai said before he vanished.

Lira just knelt their stunned, it wasn't possible, not Kitsune, not Danzo-sama's pride and joy. How? Why? Damn it, they shouldn't have run away. Wait, was it raining? Lira gingerly lifted a hand to her cheek to feel the wet trail there, the trail lead to her eye. It wasn't raining, she was crying.

A pair of arms wrapped around her and Lira stiffened, she turned her head to look at Sakura who had buried her face in Lira's shoulder. "I'm sorry," she sobbed, "I'm so sorry."

"Why?" Lira asked, her voice hollow. This cold feeling in the core of her being, was this what sadness was meant to feel like? Was this loss?

"He stayed to protect us, you shouldn't have had to protect us. I'm sorry," Sakura sobbed harder.

"Stop crying," Lira took Sakura by the shoulders and they both stood, "we are trained shinobi we knew the risks of this test when we signed the forms."

Sakura looked at Lira but the redhead wasn't really look at her, more looking through Sakura at a point far behind her head and it was unnerving. Sakura had said something similar over Sasuke in the Land of Waves not too long ago. She'd come so close to loosing Sasuke then and to nearly loose him now and what had she done? Stood there and cried and screamed, shaking like a frightened animal. She had become a shinobi for Sasuke but she wasn't strong like a shinobi should be.

Thinking back to the other times Lira and Sai and Kitsune had been before her Sakura realised that she'd feared them, they were strong, they weren't friendly. They were shinobi and in a way she wanted to be strong like that but now, seeing the glassy look in Lira's eyes, she wasn't a shinobi anymore, just a scared, frightened girl.

Sasuke and Kiba watched the two girls not saying anything, the begrudging respect the two had formed for the blonde haired shinobi that had sacrificed his life for them was honoured in their silence. Words and tears were for girls. As they watched Lira drew out another scroll and from this one summoned a bag, a bag that was full of…exam scrolls.

"What, where did you get all of those?" Kiba asked, gaping in astonishment.

"We defeated other teams, the less that are in this competition, the better," Lira replied, Kitsune was dead, they would not be able to continue with the chunin exams, they had failed the mission. And anyway, what good would disjointed fragments of information do them anyway. She selected a heaven scroll and an earth scroll and handed them both to Sakura.

The other girl was still watching her with tears in her eyes, "He was not your team-mate," Lira said, "there is no need for you to cry."

"Then why aren't you crying, wasn't he your friend?" Sakura demanded, her hands shaking, clutching the scrolls to her as if reality would crumble beneath her if she didn't.

"Kitsune was my leader, there will be other leaders for other missions, come on. Let's get you into the tower."

Lira ushered and a now silent Sakura to the large door at the base of the tower, Sasuke and Kiba followed. The three pushed open the door and stepped inside. As they did there was a great roar of thunder overhead, lightning flashed in the distance and then rain began to fall.

"Be safe," Sakura whispered as the two boys pushed the door shut.

Once team 7 were safely in the tower Lira took off towards Sai's chakra signature. They needed to dispose of a body after all.

¤¤¤¤¤

Kabuto crouched low in the undergrowth and watched the scene play out before him. Once team 7 were in the tower the redheaded girl took off the same way her black haired team-mate had. Kabuto frowned; the plan had been to gain the trust of team 7 by leading them to the tower but it seemed that had already been taken care off. Orochimaru would not be happy. Perhaps this year he would have to stay in the exams after all. What an interesting crop of candidates this year's bunch was turning out to be.

Pushing his glasses up his nose Kabuto sped off back to his team, they already had their two scrolls. It was time to enter the tower and give the battered and bewildered team 7 some much needed reassurance.

**-------------------------------------------------**

**Woo, a long fight scene. I don't have much experience writing fight scenes so any helpful tips or comments on that nice long one at the beginning would be very much appreciated. It was very difficult to work with seven characters at once, you end up focusing on one or two and it's not like drawing or animating when you can pan out to have them all in view or have flashes of each face. Anyway, this is the longest chapter yet and I've set myself a target that each chapter must be longer than the last which may be a bit ambitious :D Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this so far, I hope to update again in a fortnight or so provided that work doesn't pile up too much.**

**-------------------------------------------------**

x-Xanti-x - Just out of interest, will you be at Otakon again this year? I've nearly got all the money I'll need to go again. Maybe we can meet up :D

kit onigri - He will die I promise

Sandaime Hokage - Thank-you

ddd - It didn't take me a couple of months...honest

shirilyle - Thanks

lady sakura cosmos - Thanks

ElementalFoxGoddess - He will be yes

Aaidurii - Voila, I hope you enjoyed the update :D


	7. Stage 6

**I'm telling you...these chapters are writing themselves. I got to the point I wanted to end this chapter at and then I realized it was 11 1/2 pages in word long. I was like wtf? I've never written a chapter that long. But hey, I loved this story when I started writing it and I still love it.**

Her blood was running cold, her heart was beating wildly in her chest, her breaths came short and fast. No doubt about it, Lira was panicking. Not only was the loss of Kitsune affected her but the reaction of Danzo-sama was not something she wanted to face, especially after that serious breach of her training. All that time watching that pink haired weakling must have gotten to her. A month of serious training should put her back on track.

Lira shook her head, dispelled all thoughts of training and focusing on catching up with Sai, it was early evening now and the stars were beginning to come out. She needed to find Sai, dispose of Kitsune's body and get out of this forest as soon as possible. They couldn't stay in the exam without Kitsune and the events would have to be reported to Danzo-sama immediately.

The trees began to thin, they were scorched on one side in a large ring and some were still smoking slightly. Great branches lay on the ground where they had been sliced from the trees; it was obvious that a fight had taken place. Then she spotted them; Sai was kneeling on the forest floor cradling Kitsune's head in his lap.

She jumped down to land beside him, "Sai we need to dispose of the body," Lira said quietly; surprised the other boy hadn't already begun.

"No we don't, he isn't dead," Sai replied and Lira's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief.

Ignoring the sudden warmth that spread all the way to her fingertips she gave an exclamation of surprise. "What do mean? I felt his chakra drain with my own senses and I'm never wrong," she spat.

"There's no point arguing over this," Sai replied his eyes narrowing slightly in mild irritation.

Lira glared at him but put her hand to Kitsune's chest and felt the reassuring thud of a heartbeat. She gasped, she must have imagined it but no, his wrist, his neck, there was definitely a pulse and he was breathing. She could see it now, the slight almost invisible rise and fall of his chest. Then Kitsune winced and bared his teeth, his body tensed and shook.

"What's the matter with him?" she asked starring wide eyed.

"I'm not sure," Sai replied, his eyes downcast, "but we need to find shelter. We cannot pass the exam unless we are all in fighting condition."

"If he doesn't wake up within the four days we have left then we fail," Lira affirmed. She stood helping Sai to holster Kitsune onto his back and the three set off to find a good place to camp out.

¤ º _**Team 7 **_º ¤ 

Kiba and Sasuke turned to face Sakura who was still sniffling quietly and shaking softly. Covered in dirt and very pale she looked much like one of the petals of her namesake that had been crushed under foot. She looked down at the two scrolls in her hands, "Why?" she murmured softly, "why did they do that for us?"

Sasuke didn't answer when she looked at him, what could he say, he didn't know. But they had seemed to know something about that grass ninja and come to think of it. Her headband had changed halfway through the fight; it had been a sound headband. That meant those sound ninja from orientation were involved some how. Were they all that strong?

Akamaru gave a yip, "Akamaru's right, let's just get on with this. I'm tired," Kiba groaned.

"How can you be so dismissive, someone's just died," Sakura snapped at him.

"Look Sakura, I understand that your upset, hell, I'm not too happy about it either but the fact remains that we have to finish the test," Kiba said firmly. "They'll be a proper burial service when the proctors have been notified you can grieve then."

Sakura sniffed once, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Kiba was right, they had to finish, then there would be time for proper grieving. She looked down at the scrolls again and then began to look around her.

They seemed to be in some kind of entrance hall, staircases on the left and right led up to balconies lining the two walls adjacent to the large double doors they had just come through. Hung on the opposite wall was a tapestry on which were written words in black ink. All three of them read the words carefully.

"What does it mean?" Kiba asked.

"I think it relates to the scrolls," Sakura replied, "the writing mentions heaven and earth, like the scrolls."

"Maybe we have to open them together," Sasuke suggested having read the tapestry twice and finding no other hidden clue or meaning.

"But if we weren't supposed to open the scrolls out there then what would opening them in here do?" Kiba asked looking a little confused.

"Maybe something in this room activates something on the scrolls?" Sakura suggested, she too was at a loss to answer Kiba's question.

"There isn't much else we can do," Sasuke replied sounding a little irritated. "There doesn't seem to be anyway out of this room but the way we came and they don't expect us to make it back to the gate and the only other thing that every contested has in common is the scrolls."

"I guess," Kiba shrugged.

"Alright then," Sakura nodded and handed one of the scrolls to Kiba, "together then?" The three gave a nod of affirmation and Kiba and Sakura broke the seals and pulled out the scrolls. More writing in black ink and…a summoning seal.

There was smoke and both Sakura and Kiba dropped the scrolls and took a few steps backwards. As the dust cleared a man stood there in regulation blue shinobi uniform with a chunin jacket on and a large scar across the bridge of his nose. "Iruka-sensei!" Sakura cried in relieved delight.

He grinned at them, "Long time no see guys," he pulled a pocket watch out of his pocket, "I have to say I'm impressed, you guys beat the record for this exam."

"Really?" Kiba grinned widely, "So we finished first?

Iruka laughed nervously, "Well, you beat the pervious record, there is one team that finished before you," Iruka looked unnerved and went silent for a moment. The three had seen enough solemn faces that day to know that they shouldn't ask.

"So what happens now Iruka-sensei?" Sakura asked blinking to keep her eyes open. She was beginning to feel very tired.

"Well you're going to have to wait in the tower until morning and then you'll be taken back to the village to wait for the second exam to officially end. But the hard part is over." Iruka smiled, "I'm really surprised you've all done so well. But I have to say you look like you've been through the wars," he laughed.

Sakura took a step forward, she was going to tell Iruka-sensei about the fight, about Kitsune, about everything but then Sasuke grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. She gave a squeak as she landed against his chest; she blushed and for the moment forgot what she was going to say.

Iruka wasn't an idiot, he'd spent years as an academy teacher and as much as Kakashi would like to think differently these three were still his students and he could still read them. They weren't soldiers yet. Sakura was obviously nervous about something and he'd seen the flicker of annoyance that went across Sasuke's face and the expression on Kiba's face spoke volumes. Something had happened to these three that neither of the boys wanted to mention. Had they had to kill? It was often harder on the kunoichi to accept the consequences of battle than for the male shinobi, especially at so young an age. They may be competing in life-risking exams but some of the examiners seemed to forget that these children were just that, children, only thirteen most of them. How could they be expected to carry the weight of adult wars?

It is true that children had a greater ability to grasp concepts, to try new things; to push their limits and extend the hand of friendship beyond the prejudices of their village but those were such innocent ideals. They couldn't be expected to accept blood on their hands without complaint or fear.

But then perhaps he was just over-exaggerating the whole thing.

"Anyway," Iruka gave another grin hoping to dispel the tension that was gathering, "if you go up the stairs you'll make your way into the main area of the tower, just find a couple of rooms that aren't occupied and write your names on the tags on the door. I'll be back to collect you all in the morning." A few hand seals later and Iruka was gone leaving the three genin alone again.

"Sakura," Sasuke said making the green eyed girl look at him, "we're not going to mention this to anyone."

"What?" Sakura exclaimed hotly. Normally she'd follow Sasuke without question but this was madness, the proctors had to know, that ninja was dangerous. "You can't be serious Sasuke, that grass ninja was going to do something horrible to you I just know it and that feeling, that cold…" she trailed off.

Kiba blinked in surprise, Sakura objecting to Sasuke, this was new.

"It has nothing to do with us, they told us this exam would be difficult and that there would be people with more experience," Sasuke snapped.

"I know that," Sakura replied just as fiercely, "but that wasn't just experience and the way that other girl, Lira, and the boy were talking. It's like they knew that ninja was going to be there, coming after you. Something is going on here Sasuke and I know you've noticed it too." Sakura's green eyes burned with a fire that neither of the boy's had really seen their before. Up until this point she'd just been playing ninja, maybe she was actually going to become strong.

Sasuke glared down at her, "They probably did more research on the candidates than we did. If you tell anyone Sakura, if you do anything to get in the way of me and this exam I will hurt you." With that Sasuke strode past her leaving a shocked and scared and hurt Sakura in his wake.

"Don't you think that was a little harsh Sasuke," Kiba demanded. To be honest, as much as he respected the Uchiha for his skill he was a downright bastard at times.

"The same goes for you Kiba," Sasuke replied without looking back over his shoulder.

"You and you're damn revenge, I don't see what all the girls see in you. All I see is a self-absorbed prat," Kiba drawled. Sasuke looked over his shoulder and glared before storming away.

"Thank-you Kiba," Sakura said quietly without looking up at him, in fact, her head was bowed so much that her pink hair hung forward and covered her face.

"You shouldn't let him push you around Sakura," Kiba said softly, "you may not be as strong as him but you're one of the smartest people I know." Sakura slowly rose her head to meet him, her face registering pleasant surprise. "Don't take this like I fancy you or anything," Kiba snipped reverting to his brusque self.

Sakura smiled and than laughed, "Thank-you Kiba," she took his hand and gave it a squeeze, "really, thank-you."

"Come on," he said, "let's go get a room, maybe they have food around here too."

¤¤¤¤¤

Sakura was sitting up against the headboard of her bed with her feet tucked beneath her and her hands in her lap. She was reading from a small scarp of paper that Lira had given her when she had shoved the two scrolls into her arms. In fact Sakura had very nearly lost it. Looking at it now Sakura didn't know what to think for on the paper was written '_Do not trust people with more information than you_'.

Sakura couldn't think was Lira might be referring to, Sasuke? The grass ninja perhaps? For a moment Sakura was tempted to go and ask Sasuke but in the light of what he'd said when they had entered the tower that probably wasn't a good idea. He'd probably say she was getting in the way again.

Sakura frowned and drew her knees up in front of her; she always seemed to be in the way. It had been like that ever since they graduated from the academy, it was always Kiba taking the first leap or Sasuke coming to the rescue. The only time she had really been ahead of them was tree climbing and anything else that involved chakra control. It just seemed to come so naturally. She wasn't as good at using large weapons like Sasuke's windmill shuriken and she didn't have a companion with which she worked so naturally like Kiba and Akamaru. She didn't really seem to have anything special at all.

Her chakra reserves were large…just refined. Maybe she could ask Kakashi-sensei if there were any techniques he could teach her that involved excellent chakra control. With that last comforting thought Sakura curled up with the covers pulled up to her chin and fell asleep.

¤ º _**Team 8 **_º ¤ 

The three trudged into the tower, it was very dark outside now and the moon was high in the sky. If it wasn't for Hinata's byakugan and Shino's bugs they'd have had a lot more obstacles and probably wouldn't have made it to the tower till dawn at the least. Kyo still hadn't gotten over the shock that he may very well have been killed by Konoha genin not much older than himself. 

"I mean, we're all on the same side really aren't we? If we were all appointed chunin we wouldn't start fighting each other would we? I'll bet all the other countries teamed up and there they were and they were going to kills us," Kyo ranted. 

"Please Kyo-kun," Hinata stammered nervously, "don't go on so." 

Shino rolled his eyes behind his glasses. 

"Well now what?" Kyo huffed with an over exaggerated sigh. 

"We open the scrolls," Shino replied, is tone sharp and obviously irritated. 

Hinata looked between the two boys, they were so different and not really compatible. Shino was calm and collected, saying the minimal and most effective words. Kyo had a tendency to babble and was easily shaken, he was good at what he did but he was easily shaken. She couldn't say much better for herself though. The first test had made her nervous, more because of the looks of the competition as opposed to anything else. But this second test, the encounter with team Kitsune. She dreaded to think how they might have faired if those three hadn't needed to rush off. 

The dark haired girl drew the two scrolls from her pouch and laid them out on the ground. Breaking the seals she rolled them out and stepped back as a waft of smoke rose from the scrolls and standing before them was a ninja they didn't recognise. He wore a Konoha headband and a chunin vest so Hinata breathed a small sigh of relief at something familiar and vaguely comforting. The chunin gave them the same instructions that team 7 had been given and so the three found themselves walked up the stairs, along the balcony, through the door and into a room with a couple of couches, a tv set and a kitchenette. There was also two doors marked with lavatory signs and a winding staircase leading up into the body of the tower. 

The three made their way up the winding flight of stairs looking at the doors as they passed. The first door had a label Temari, the nest Kankuro, Gaara, Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba…Hinata stopped for a moment. She flushed a slight pink, Kiba-kun had passed already that was so great. She hurried after Shino and Kyo who were writing their names on the next two doors up. 

"Goodnight," she said to her teammates from higher up on the stairs and bowed slightly. The two boys bid her goodnight also and Hinata then entered her own room. It was sparse, with a dresser and a bed but then she supposed that the tower wasn't really built to be lived in. Simply a stopping point, a meeting place for the proctors and momentary resting place for those who had passed. 

Hinata had undressed and curled up in the bed before a thought struck her. Team Kitsune had had a bag bulging with scrolls, why hadn't they passed? Perhaps they were in rooms further up…but why would they do that. Unless what they rushed off for had delayed them. Still, it unnerved her and she had a very restless night. 

¤ º _**Team Kitsune **_º ¤ 

A dip in the profile of the land had caused the earth there to become saturated with rainwater overtime. The mud had been washed away from beneath the roots of the trees leaving the tops of the thick roots of the large tress exposed forming natural cave like structures. The roots criss-crossed above the team of three, two of whom were conscious and the other who was lying flat out, his head propped up on the bag of scrolls and a damp cloth across his forehead. 

Sai and Lira had gathered moss, leaves and small twigs and interviewed them with the roots, and packed down the moss, often in the form of large slabs of bark covered in the soft green plant. This insulated their wooden cave and kept them warm and dry which was good because it was raining heavily. 

"Sai, I know I couldn't sense Kitsune's chakra," Lira said quietly, wary of broaching the subject again, "I could sense Orochimaru's so it wasn't because he was out of range. How can someone survive full chakra depletion, I mean I know Kitsune has healing abilities but-" 

"It's more than that," Sai said softly. 

"What do you mean?" Lira asked, Sai wasn't looking at her, instead he was looking out at the falling rain. 

"Lira, if I tell you and Danzo-sama found out we would both be severely punished," Lira's eyes widened, "because I'm about to explain to you two of the greatest cover-ups of the hidden leaf village." 

"Cover-ups, for what? Surely a mission can't have gone that badly, I know you and Kitsune have accompanied some of the anbu assassinations missions but –" 

"It wasn't any mission," Sai interrupted, "it has to do with a boy name Uzumaki Naruto." 

"I've heard that name, years ago now, he was a new member to ROOT, I've never met him," Lira mused. 

"Uzumaki Naruto was a very strange little boy," Sai continued ignoring Lira, "he had this big dream of becoming Hokage so that the village would stop disrespecting him. He was always smiling and talking about ramen, he was like no one I had ever met. Not even like brother," Sai went silent for a moment. 

Lira studied his expression and it could actually be called that. His face didn't look bored or relaxed so no emotion showed but a genuine emotion. Sai's eyebrows were furrowed and his lips were set in a thin line and turned down slightly in a frown. 

"I liked him, he was a friend, he made me feel warm like I was part of something, I can't explain it…I don't know how but it went against our training. You see, Naruto was brought to ROOT as a means of protecting him from attacks, the anbu couldn't afford to keep going out to pick up after the boy because he couldn't defend himself. When it became apparent that Naruto was _corrupting_ me for lack of a better word Danzo-sama took him away." 

"Was he executed?" Lira asked in horror, she's seen the lengths that Danzo-sama would go to in terms of punishment but she hadn't known him have anyone killed. But then, she didn't know everyone in ROOT besides those with whom she had trained or shared a mission so she couldn't know. 

"No, I wasn't actually there but Maya-sensei told me after, told me that I would never be able to speak to Naruto again. They took him from me and suppressed him, his personality, his believes, his dreams, wiped him clean so to speak. So much easier to install Danzo-sama's ways then," Sai continued swallowing hard. Lira couldn't tell if it was her imagination of a trick of the light but the boy's dark eyes seemed to be glassy. 

"And here comes the importance of the first great cover-up, I say first because chronologically it happened before. You know of the attack of the nine-tailed fox?" Sai asked, this time he did look at her and it was a look so intense that Lira had to look away. 

"Of course, who hasn't, and of Yondaime who defeated it," Lira nodded in affirmation. 

Sai gave a dry, hollow laugh, "But there in lies the secret, he didn't _defeated_ _it_, merely locked it away. Sealed it within the body of a baby, a boy that would later grow up to be Uzumaki Naruto." 

Lira gasped, "Sealed in a mere boy? But how? The tailed beasts are huge amassments of chakra, to store that in someone, storing that much excess chakra would cause them to die." 

"Yes, which is where the genius of the Yondaime's seal comes in. It was designed so that the chakra of the fox would gradually leak into the chakra of the host, combining with his and eventually become a full integration," Sai explained, "but with that chakra would come the will of the fox." 

"That person would have huge chakra reserves then wouldn't he…wait," Lira's eyes widened as she looked down at Kitsune, at the scars on his face that had often reminded her of whiskers, "Kitsune has huge chakra reserves…" 

Sai merely watched her for a moment before continuing, "Sarutobi-san decreed that no one who was not of a conscious age and so would not remember the fact that the fox was sealed inside Naruto would be sworn to silence. To give Naruto the best chance at life, but that did not stop them from instilling their hate in their children. Their hate for a boy who knew nothing of what he was and they attacked him mercilessly, this is why he was brought to ROOT. But the chakra mergence started the moment the fox was sealed." 

"All those years ago, when half of the ROOT training area was destroyed in a freak accident…it wasn't an accident was it?" 

"By suppressing the consciousness of the host it allowed the consciousness of the Kyuubi no Kitsune that had become part of him along with the chakra to take over. The amount of chakra Naruto had absorbed was not enough for Kyuubi to take on a very dangerous form and he was eventually suppressed but not without causing serious injury to many and damage. 

Are you beginning to understand now Lira?" 

"The reason I couldn't sense Kitsune's chakra…because it wasn't his he was using anymore, it was Kyuubi's," Lira swallowed hard. "I guess that explains his code name." 

She looked down at the sleeping face of Kitsune, his blonde hair damp and falling in soft waves around his head. The black curse mark still bright against his neck and his cloths torn, muddy and covered in specks of blood. To think inside this body was a demon beyond control, that only the conscious thought of this individual was keeping it at bay. 

"Sai, what'll happen when he wakes up?" Lira asked suddenly frightened. The curse mark had a one in ten chance of letting the host survive, a statistic formed from the fact that only one out of ten test subjects of Orochimaru had survived. The proctor or the second exam; Anko Mitarashi. 

"I don't know," Sai replied. "You need to sleep Lira," he said as he saw her eyes drooping, "I'll keep first watch." 

Lira nodded and yawned, too tired to argue she curled up close to Kitsune to keep him warm and fell fast asleep in minutes. The soft rain lulling her into a deep sleep. Sai watched her slip into unconsciousness. Whatever Kitsune was like when he woke up, whether he would be Naruto or Kitsune or something else altogether, no one could know. The mission couldn't stop now. 

¤¤¤¤¤ 

Kiba awoke feeling much better. The bed was soft and comfortable, Akamaru was certainly looking much better but as Kiba's stomach gave a loud grumble he was reminded that he had no had a proper meal in over 24 hours. Getting up and getting dressed Kiba double-checked he had everything and exited. Akamaru lead the way down the stairs and gave an excited yip.

"What's that boy? Team 8 have passed too?" Kiba affirmed as he came to the bottom of the stairs to see Shino, Kyo and Hinata all gathered around the table with hot bowls of porridge steaming in their laps.

"Hey guys," Kiba gave a call and a wave in happy greeting. Going to get himself some breakfast he joined them, decided to sit beside Hinata and not noticing the blush that spread over the small girl's cheeks. "When did you guys get in?"

"Late last night," Kyo replied, "and I'm glad we did, I wouldn't to spend a night out there."

"Yeh, I wouldn't be too keen either," Kiba replied looking out of one of the many windows that showed the tops of the trees. "There are some pretty dodgy teams out there," he was thinking of the grass ninja they had encountered.

"You're telling us," Kyo said looking jumpy, "you know that team Kitsune?"

"Yeh?" Kiba asked looking up, maybe team 8 had heard seen them, maybe Lira had been wrong after all.

"They tried to kill us."

Kiba opened his mouth in shock, his eyes widened slightly and he just stared at Kyo. This couldn't be right, he had to be wrong, I mean team Kitsune weren't cute and cuddly but surely they wouldn't try and kill other genin…especially not other leaf village genin. "You're lying," Kiba said looking confused.

"No, they had us cornered and then the girl gets all weird and says something like _the enemy's on top of the principle_, whatever that meant," Kyo shrugged. "It was really freaky."

"Wait, what time was this?" Kiba asked.

"Like just after we started the test," Kyo replied, "that's where we got our scroll, the girl had a big bag of them and one must have fallen out. She was scary, she was all like _are you sure we're rookies_, I think she wanted to kill us the most out of all three."

Kyo continued to babble but Kiba wasn't listening. A little while into the exam…rush off…enemy on top of the principle?

"What do you know Kiba?" Shino asked and Kiba raised his eyes to meet the black glasses of his friend.

"I think when they rushed off, it was to get to our team," Kiba said trying not to let his voice shake.

"D-did they try to…to k-kill you too K-Kiba-kun?" Hinata stammered looking up at the other ninja with wide eyes.

"No, they started helping us. There was this really weird grass ninja who started attacking us with snakes and things and then they suddenly showed up and started fighting her. They got us out of there alive, if they hadn't shown up when they did things might have been different," Kiba hung his head. He didn't know what the think now; it's difficult to feel sorry that someone who saved your life has died when said person tried to kill one of your best friends. The enemy of my enemy is my friend had to be the worst possible thing to say right now.

"Then they were looking for you, or your team or they knew about this grass ninja. You obviously weren't a threat to them so the enemy must have been this grass ninja you were talking about," Shino concluded.

"B-but what w-would they won't fr-from Kiba-kun's team Shino?" Hinata asked looking between the two. Kyo, who had stopped rambling was listening closely.

"It seems it would be more a point of keeping Kiba's team away from this grass ninja," Shino replied.

The conversation might have continued if two things hadn't happened. The first was a sound of a door opening and closing, some voices, some feet on steps and then suddenly Kabuto and his similarly dressed teammates came stumbling through the door to the social area. At the same time Sakura came downstairs, a piece of paper clutched in her hand and she gave a gasp when she saw Kabuto.

¤¤¤¤¤

Sakura had woken up feel bright and refreshed and ready for the new day. She was looking forward to relaxing back in Konoha with a nice long bath, not to mention the look on Ino's face when she found that Sakura had finished before her would probably add to the kick. Sakura rolled over, not quite ready to get out of the warm cocoon she had built for herself overnight just yet. Then her stomach gave a protesting grumble and so she rolled out of bed. She heard a crinkle as her foot connected with paper, looking down she found the note Lira had given her, it had fallen off her bed in the night.

Reaching down Sakura picked it up and contemplated it some more as she got dressed and headed downstairs. When she reached the bottom she saw Kabuto and his team stumble through the far door, maybe she could ask him about his information cards to see if he had anything on…

_Do not trust people with more information than you_

…oh. Sakura gasped.

¤¤¤¤¤ 

Kitsune groaned and opened his eyes looking around as his vision cleared and sharpened. He sat up suddenly, where was he? He should be in the forest of death not in a bed, had Sai abandoned the mission? Then Kitsune took note of himself and was shocked to find himself smaller than he should be. Dressed in a pair of shorts and a white t-shirt with an orange swirl on the front he looked over to the mirror on the far side of the room. Staring back was a boy no older than eight but it was still him, the scar over the bridge of his nose proved that. 

Could this be a genjutsu? Or maybe just a dream…but Kitsune had never dreamed. 

He pushed himself from the bed and began to investigate the room. It was sparsely decorated, very few belongings but something about this place felt like home. Walking over to the only door Kitsune cast about for chakra signatures but there was nothing so he went out. He found himself confronted by a room with a sofa and a small kitchenette. Investigating the cupboards he found packets and packets of…instant ramen? 

How could anyone eat that pot of chemicals? It nearly made Kitsune wince thinking about it. 

"Who are you?" 

Kitsune spun around. Another boy had come in through what he assumed to be the front door of the apartment. This boy, he was…identical to Kitsune but he didn't have a mark across his nose. Three whisker marks on each cheek but the rest was the same. The bright blond hair, the azure eyes, Kitsune swallowed. 

"Who are you?" Kitsune asked in response, not wanting to answer this apparition. 

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," the boy smiled, "but who are you?" 

"I'm Kitsune," he answered, unnerved by the fact the boy was neither scared of a presence in his home or hostile. "Where am I?" 

"You're in my apartment, or the memory or it," Naruto replied stepped forward towards the cupboards holding the ramen. 

Kitsune backed out of the way, not wanted to get too close. "A memory?" Kitsune was confused, some genjutsu were able to reach into your subconscious and draw out deep secrets in your heart but none of this seemed familiar to Kitsune. "What do you mean by that?" 

"What you see around you is what I see in my memory for this part of us is mine," Naruto replied. 

"Part of us, what are you talking about?" Kitsune snarled, "stop talking in riddles." 

"I can't explain it, I don't remember what happened," Naruto replied smiling again and all of a sudden the image of the apartment disappeared. Dissolving into a mass of colours that seemed to fall beneath them leaving only black. Naruto and Kitsune were left standing facing each other over a great black chasm. Kitsune didn't dare take a step now that he couldn't see the floor. 

But then another room began to form around them. Grey walls, an operating table in the centre of the room. "This…this is in ROOT," Kitsune's eyes widened, was this Naruto configuring the genjutsu, should he attack? What could he attack with? 

"This is where our memories meet," Naruto replied as a door began to appear in one of the grey walls. "That is the way out for us," Naruto continued as he began to walk towards Kitsune. Kitsune backed up until he was pressed against the wall, "Don't be afraid." Naruto was a foot away now, he reached a hand up and poked Kitsune on the forehead, "We'll be Hokage one day datte be yo." 

Then Naruto began to disappear becoming a million droplets of light that seemed to envelope Kitsune and fuse into him. Kitsune, who had been feeling a cold panic up until now suddenly felt warm, safe and complete. As if some part of him that had been missing for a long time had filled up a hole he hadn't even realised was there. 

Now standing alone in what he recognised as a torture chamber Kitsune considered what had just happened. With nothing better to do and no obvious way out of what may be a genjutsu or not he made for the door and opened it. If this genjutsu had really been playing off his memories this door would have opened out onto a corridor lit by torches and with black walls and the feint smell of damp. Instead the corridor was dry and grey and there were many many doors. 

There were also three directions; in one direction the corridor was bare and plane. Down the one in front of him there were black swirling marks on the walls and the other, the other was just as bare at the first but there was definitely something different at the end of that tunnel. 

He stepped forward intending to investigate the tunnel with the black markings- 

_Don't go that way_

Kitsune stopped, that was Naruto's voice. He cast about but he couldn't see the other boy anywhere. He stepped forward again- 

_Don't go that way _

This time the voice sounded slightly older but it was still Naruto, Kitsune tried again and each step he took the voice rang a little clearer, a little older until he recognised it as his own voice. Then a pair of scaly webbed hands seemed to sprout from either wall of the corridor on both sides of him. Reaching for him, enclosing him, pulling him further in. 

There was a darkness at the end of this tunnel, a great overwhelming darkness that you could loose yourself forever in. But Kitsune didn't want to loose himself; he still had to complete his mission. And Sai was waiting for him to come back. Sai… 

"_You're a really great artist, I've never seen anyone draw like that," Naruto said as he leaned over Sai's shoulder to look at the picture book in the boy's lap. Sai frowned and closed the book, hiding it from Naruto. "Oh, how come I can't see?" The blonde whiskered boy pouted. _

"_It's for my brother," Sai replied looking at Naruto warily. He wasn't sure what to make of this new boy. _

"_Oh you have a brother," Naruto blinked, "I've never had a brother or a sister. I don't remember my parents either, what about you Sai, do you remember your parents?" _

_Sai shook his head. _

"_Do you have any other brother's or sister's Sai?" _

_Sai shook his head again hoping that silence would deter the blonde but he appeared to be wrong. _

"_I know, since I've never had a brother before and you only have one then I can be your brother too," Naruto grinned. Despite the hostility in this boy he'd never really known anyone who hadn't run away at the site of him so to have someone who would at least respond was an amazing thing to have. _

"_I don't want another brother," Sai replied. _

"_Oh," Naruto shoulders slumped and he looked miserable. _

_Sai winced, his training told him to be emotionless, to not form attachments but something about this blonde made him want to reach out, to form a bond that he didn't fully understand. _

"_But I guess you could be my sister you're so girly," Sai said tonelessly. _

_Naruto grinned and tackle him, throwing insults and punches until both boys were tired out from laughing and fighting. _

A roar shook Kitsune to the very core and brought him back to the feel of those cold clammy hands wrapped around him. Then a red bubbling fire seemed to flood down the corridor and burn the hands away, burning Kitsune too and it hurt. It was an unnaturally burning, his skin rippled and bubbled and burst under the heat. Kitsune screamed. 

¤¤¤¤¤ 

Lira was starring at Kitsune in fear her back pressed up against one of the thick roots. Sai wasn't looking too happy either. First Kitsune's body had been enveloped in swirling black and purple chakra, a sign that the curse mark of Orochimaru was beginning to take over. Then it began to get redder as a bubbling, red and orange chakra began to consume him. Kitsune's face twisted into a mask of intense pain.

"Lira, he's burning," Sai said forcefully.

"What do I look like? A medic-nin?" Lira demanded her fear making her snappish. She reached into her pouch and drew out a water pouch; popping off the top she emptied the half empty contents onto Kitsune.

The water hissed and turned to steam but it did seem to help a little as the raging chakra began to fade and disperse around them. Then Kitsune gave a roaring scream, his back arched and his hands reached for the mark on his neck. He scratched at it with elongated nails, his fangs showed and then it was gone. The chakra went, the tension dispersed and Kitsune collapsed on the ground his eyes opening slowly and focusing on Lira and then on Sai.

"What day is it?" he croaked.

"Day five," Lira replied with a half laugh as she let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

Kitsune pushed himself up into a sitting position his breathing a little laboured. "Are you two alright?" he asked.

Lira's eyes widened and she blinked, "Yes we're fine," she was shocked. She'd expected him to ask about team 7, the mission not whether they were her and Sai were alright.

"And team 7?"

"Safe inside the tower since day one," Sai replied, "come on, we'd better hurry." Sai helped Kitsune to his feet and the three packed up the small camp that Lira and Sai had made while they were waiting out the unconscious Kitsune.

"Sai?"

"Hm," the black haired boy looked up at Kitsune who was starring at him with an odd look on his face.

"You're a good artist."

Sai didn't know what to make of Kitsune's strange behaviour, instead he just focused on making sure the three of them got to the tower in time. With Kitsune in this state he didn't really want to have to face Danzo-sama.

Lira, who had heard Kitsune's compliment, was even more confused than Sai. Sure he'd told her about Naruto and about some of the things they'd done she had never known Naruto before he became Kitsune. To her Kitsune had always been impassionate and focussed only on the mission. His subordinates were there to help complete the mission however that may be. He hadn't stayed behind to fight Orochimaru out of self-sacrificing friendship, it was because he was the strongest and would take the longest to wear down giving them the maximum amount of time to put some distance between Orochimaru and the Sasuke. But now…she wasn't so sure. She didn't want to form a bond with Kitsune because that would get in the way of the mission Danzo-sama had given her.

**-------------------------------------------------**

**Well that's the end of the longest chapter I have ever written.**

**-------------------------------------------------**

ddd - No he doesn't have infinite chakra, especially when he is 12, Kitsune is only middle chunin level, he isn't like shippuden Naruto. But yeh, I hope this chapter cleared this up for you.

shyalchemist - Thank-you

x-Xanti-x - I wish I lived 20 minutes from a big con like that. Oh well I shall pm you nearer the time and arrange it.

Ella Clevek - Thank-you, I'm glad you think it's original. Enjoy the update.

Akane Cross - I assume Sai has explained to you last chapter's events. I didn't take too long to update did I?

Menchi-kun - Lol I updated

AnsemMesna - Well he's a bit knocked up mentally but he'll be fine

shirilyle - Enjoy

Angel-chan - Hope you enjoyed the chapter

lightdark54 - Soon enough?

Ketsueki-Ken - Well...someone's passionate. Anyway, I'm glad that someone approves of Naruto being bitten. I was warned that people might think it cliché.


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